


Free the animal

by Beatonen



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, fantastic AU?, i dont know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2018-12-30 00:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12097047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beatonen/pseuds/Beatonen
Summary: Faunus are shapeshifters, and the humans and faunus live relatively apart from each other.While running away from her father's castle, Weiss Schnee makes a surprising encounter.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't know why this popped up, but then I had to write it, so yeah. There will be other chapters about this, eventually. I know, vaguely, what this story will be, so... Yeah. Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy!

She knew this journey would be dangerous. She thought she was prepared.

Prepared to fight against the wilds of the forest of Forever Fall.

She was not prepared, however, to feel this thirsty and hungry, not even three days after leaving her father’s castle.

Gritting her teeth, the young woman marched on, ignoring the grumbles of her empty stomach and the itches in her throat. But even if she didn’t know how to spot what was good to eat, there was a thing she knew for a fact.

She wouldn’t last more than two days without water.

And so, she had step away from the road and into the woods, surrounded by the red leaves and the darks trunks of the trees. She remembered the stories the king’s fool used to tell about this forest. How countless men had gone mad, wandering through the red sea of this cursed forest. And as she stopped and looked around, she could understand why.

It felt like it was closing on you the instant you stopped moving.

Shaking her head, she resumed her walking, decidedly focusing on what was in front of her. For a moment, it worked. Until she heard a noise, far away. Like a woman’s cry.

Weiss stopped again, focusing on the noise, hoping it was real and not just some trick of the forest. But a few seconds later it came again, and she quickly darted towards it.

If there was someone needing help, she just couldn’t pass it by.

She walked for a long moment, trying to go as fast as she could with the last of her precious energy, and she was rewarded by the growing loudness of the noise. The forest changed at this place, there was more distance between the trees leaving some kind of clear path between them, and as the sound came louder and louder, she couldn’t even hear the crunches of the leaves under her boots.

But she kept walking and the cry only grew that much louder. A human couldn’t scream that loudly. It wasn’t until she rounded a tree that she started to hear the soft, discreet clanking of metal.

A trap.

It didn’t take her long to see it.

In the middle of a clearance, hung from a tall and thick branch, a long, dark as night form was moving, wiggling, its long tail swishing in the air to keep a certain balance, and it was trying to keep its front paws on the ground, for it was hung from one of its back legs in the air, but its claws were barely brushing the dirt, even less take a solid purchase to ease the pain from the trapped leg.

The beast, Weiss soon realised, was a panther.

Still out of sight, she hesitated. She wanted to help, of course, the beast was clearly exhausted and in pain, but it was so huge, and could easily turn back on her as soon as it is released…

The dark beast growled lowly as it went still for a moment, hanging just shy of the ground, the growl transforming in a soft whine when the weight was hurting its leg again, but it didn’t move. Trying to conserve energy.

Weiss took her decision at that moment.

Stepping out from behind the tree, she stalked closer, and only a few feet away from the tree with the trap, the animal’s ears flicked towards her, and the beast opened its eyes.

Its yellow-gold eyes locked with Weiss’s pale-blue ones for a second.

Then it started roaring, fierce, trying to claw at her as it brought its lips up in a very impressive display of teeth, and Weiss jumped back, half hiding behind the tree.

“No!” She exclaimed. “I want to help you! I’m not going to hurt you!”

Somewhere in her mind something told her that it probably couldn’t understand her.

And so, she started pulling on the ropes that was wrapped around the tree, and the dark beast soon stopped moving, exhausted. After a while, when the ropes didn’t seem to loosen, Weiss grit her teeth, pulling on a knife she carried at her belt, and swiftly cut them. The large animal fell to the ground heavily with a loud grunt, the chain tied to its leg clanking loudly beside it.

Weiss hid behind the tree, hoping the beast wouldn’t take her as its next meal, but when she didn’t hear a single noise, she poked her head from behind the trunk. The panther was still, taking its breath apparently, but after a moment it straightened its back, trying to shake the trap off its leg, but the movement made it yowled. Weiss quickly looked over it from her spot.

It looked like a smaller version of a bear trap, designed to not let go of whatever had the misfortune of stepping on it. Designed for panthers.

Clearly, poachers work.

There were so few panthers left in the forest of Forever Fall, it had been a common rule to not hunt these beasts again. But the king was eager to pay whoever would bring panther’s pelts.

Weiss carefully stepped closer, trying to get in sight of the dark beast and she did, the panther hissing with its ears flat on its head as it tried to stand.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Weiss softly let out, her hands in front of her in a peaceful motion. “I just want you out of that trap.”

She stepped closer and the beast hissed again, but it did not move this time. When she was standing right beside it, not believing how big this panther was, she quickly glanced up, the beast staring at her, flashing its teeth in a silent threat but letting her do what she wanted to do. And so, she kneeled, already analysing the damn thing.

She tried to touch the injured leg only when necessary, only looking at first, feeling the panther’s stare on her neck and thinking how it could break her neck in less than a second. She took a sharp breath when she knew what to do, looking up to lock her eyes with golden ones.

“This is going to hurt.”

As quick as lightning, she slid her fingers between the cold metal and the hot, bloodied fur, trying to find the latch to unlock the jaws of the trap, hearing the low growl of the beast. She found it in no time, then pulled it, but the jaws were kept so taut that it took three tries to unlock it, each fails hurting the beast. As soon as the beast heard the soft ‘click!’ of the trap, it started to shake its leg, trying to get it off, but Weiss firmly grabbed it, pulling on the metallic jaw to free the panther’s leg, her hands slick with blood.

She worked quickly, unfazed by the roars and the growls of the beast, focused on getting all the teeth out of the leg before quickly tossing it aside, the beast jumping on its uninjured legs, making Weiss fall on her back in the process. The dark panther stared at her for a moment, enough for Weiss to stop breathing, then it let out a breath through its nose, slightly bending its head forward before taking off, trotting back to the forest.

Weiss was astonished. It _thanked_ her.

Taking a moment to recover from her shock, she sat down, her eyes falling on the trap. It probably was buried then covered with leaves. The good news was: this was probably the only one in the area. Panthers are intelligent creatures, and if they notice many traps, they just change location.

As she stood, brushing the dust off herself, she realised that she really needed to wash her hands, and that she still needed to find water. Thinking for a second, she started off in the same direction the wounded panther went. An injured animal would always go back to a safe place, and usually, there was water near.

At least, she hoped she remembered it right.

Nonetheless, about half an hour later, she could hear the sound of water, a stream maybe, but it was enough. Swallowing, her mouth feeling like the driest desert, she followed the noise, her feet dragging on the ground. After an eternity it seemed, Weiss finally stumbled in front of a very small stream, the water clear and shining in the sun, and she dropped to her knees, cupping her hands in the cold water to drink it.

She remembered now that her hands were coated in blood. Spitting a mouthful of water and grimacing, she quickly washed her hands as best she could, finally taking a big sip of water, swallowing the cold liquid in her desperately dry throat with a quiet hum. After drinking and filling her bottle, she wanted to go find some food, thinking that so close to water, there could be some berries, at least, but when she got up, feeling her legs shaking, she decided to rest a little. The sun was still high in the sky, and now that she wasn’t thirsty, food could wait a little.

Weiss leaned her back against the nearest tree, her backpack sitting on her lap and close to her chest, she closed her eyes, and it didn’t took long for her to fall asleep.

 

**** 

 

When she woke up, Weiss soon realised that the sun was lower that it was before, and after a few more moments of thinking, she realised she had slept a whole day. As if waiting for confirmation, her stomach growled loudly, added with a pang of pain that made her grimace.

A tumble beside her made her jump, clinging to her backpack and the hilt of her rapier, at her hip.

“This is what humans eat, right?” asked a voice foreign to her, a woman’s, low, with a discreet rumbling in the back.

Blinking in front of the pile of fruits that suddenly dropped out of nowhere, Weiss took a few seconds before looking up, realising a woman was standing beside her, really close. And really naked.

“Wha- Who are you?” Weiss almost squealed, hurrying up to her feet, realising she was smaller by at least a head than the other woman. “What are you doing here?”

The woman made a soft sound, arching a single eyebrow, seemingly amused by the tiny woman in front of her.

“Well, this is my home,” the stranger answered, waving at the surroundings, making Weiss even more confused.

“Your-” Weiss started, but she interrupted herself, shaking her head. “You’re also naked.”

She said the last words softly, as if saying them too loud would be even more decadent, and she could feel a blush creeping from her neck as the woman frowned, tilting her head slightly to the side curiously.

It was now that Weiss noticed her eyes. Yellow-gold.

“Naked?” she asked.

“Yes, not clothed at all!” the smaller woman exclaimed, taking her own sleeve for emphasis.

The golden eyes fell to the sleeve, scanning Weiss’s frame for a moment before only shrugging, her eyes coming back up.

“I don’t need them. I have fur.”

Weiss made a face before closing her eyes, sighing.

“This doesn’t make any sense. I’m still sleeping. I’ll wake up soon.”

“I think your stomach screaming is enough to tell you you’re awake, don’t you think?”

“A naked woman is talking to me in the middle of the woods, I’m clearly still asleep,” Weiss snapped, turning her head just enough to see the amused smile on the woman’s lips, trying hard to keep her eyes up. “Who are you?”

The woman huffed, crossing her arms under her chest, making Weiss cursing very loudly in her head. The woman wasn’t helping her at all.

“I’m the faunus you saved, yesterday. I’m Blake.”

The smaller woman chuckled, blinking as she pinched the bridge of her nose, already feeling a headache coming.

“Um… Faunus? I don’t think so. I saved a panther, yesterday.”

A loud snort brought her attention back, the strange woman staring her down with a smile, revealing two small fangs.

“You really think I was a panther? Don’t you know that they aren’t that big? They’re mere cats compared to me. Besides, panthers have rounded ears. Mine are triangular.”

With that, she bent her head forward for Weiss to see the two pointed ears sitting atop her head. The smaller woman’s expression went blank, slowly registering the information.

“And if you need more proof…”

Blake lifted her left leg, showing the marks of really fresh wounds, shiny dots running around her calf.

“I even got a souvenir.” The mysterious woman chuckled without warmth.

Weiss’s eyes stayed on the marks a long moment, reaching a hand to touch but bringing it back, clutching her own shirt, then looked up, her eyes filled with awe.

“It’s really you…” she let out in a breath.

Without waiting for her answer, Weiss spun around on her heels and kneeled at the stream, splashing some water on her face before looking at the pile of food Blake had brought with her.

“I didn’t want you to starve to death, so I brought you this,” Blake explained when she saw Weiss’s gaze. “But I’ll probably stay around for a while.”

“Why?”

“Well, you saved my life. I’m in your debt, and I hate being in someone’s debt, so…”

She shrugged again and Weiss nodded, her attention returning to the food. She reached over, taking an apple, and as she did, the pile tumble again, revealing two still, very dead hares.

“Um… Blake?”

Instantly, Weiss could see the woman stepping closer, and she had to remind herself not to look up.

If the other woman was to stay around, Weiss had to talk to her about personal space. And clothes.

“I’d love to eat meat, but unless you let me make a fire, I can’t eat them. I can’t eat raw meat.”

“Huh.”

The faunus bent down then, grabbing the hares by the ears before stalking back to her previous post, leaned against the tree.

“Humans are weird.”

 

**** 

 

Much to her surprise, Blake did stay around, a shadow following from afar. Weiss knew she was there by the tip of the dark tail she would see sometimes, before it disappeared behind a tree, or the feeling of eyes on her, or the very faint crushes of leaves under her paws. For the most part, the faunus let her be, only coming out to her to tell her she was going to hunt and the likes.

But even if the strange woman looked fine the other day when they first met, Weiss knew a bad wound when she saw one, and it took a couple of days before she caught a glimpse of Blake limping, her left back leg often held up. And one day, after gathering the plants she needed to make the medicine, she called the faunus on that.

“Blake?”

The day was still young and they were on their way for only a few hours now, but still, Blake came to her in her beast form, hobbling on three legs, and only when she was near Weiss did she changed form.

“Yes?”

“We need to find someplace safe for a couple of days.”

The faunus took a few seconds to understand what the smaller woman said, and eventually she furrowed her brows, tilting her head on the side slightly.

“Um… Why? I thought you needed to go?”

“I do,” Weiss affirmed, turning her attention on the woman beside her, noticing how Blake was leaning all her weight on her good leg. “But you insist on staying with me, and I’m not going to let that wound go bad because we didn’t stop.”

The faunus’s features hardened as her ears dropped on her head.

“I’m fine.”

“But you’re not!” Weiss snapped. “Look at you, you can’t even walk on your two feet! Let me help you!”

“I said I’m fine,” Blake retorted dryly, and started turning her back. “Besides, what can a human like you do?”

The smaller woman stomped her foot as she gritted her teeth, clenching her fists tightly at her sides.

“Well, I can just sit in the middle of the road. Wait for something dangerous to come to me. Then you’ll realise that you’re in no shape for a fight.”

When the faunus turned on her heels again, staring Weiss down hardly, the smaller woman only held her chin high and her back straighter.

“If you wish so much to die, I can just kill you right now and spare you the trouble, you know.” Blake hissed, her ears now pinned against her scalp.

“No thank you, I want to live.” Weiss retorted, not at all impressed by the show of teeth.

It was only when the taller woman stepped closer, stopping barely a few inches from her, her eyes taking a dangerous shine as she towered Weiss, that the smaller woman suddenly realised that she wasn’t in position of power. Even in her human form, Blake was far stronger than her, and could assuredly kill her in seconds, even minus a leg. But she did not step down, craning her neck so she could meet the faunus’s stare stubbornly as she tried to repress the shiver running down her spine.

After a moment of this staring contest, Blake’s features softened a little, and it was her that stepped back, a small, amused smile on her lips.

“You’ve got balls for such a small woman,” she let out after a moment.

“I’ll consider it a compliment.” Weiss retorted, her voice quiet.

“It is. Fine,” Blake turned on her heels, hobbling her way towards the tree line. “I know a place, not too far from here, where we can stay for a few days.”

Then she stopped, glancing over her shoulder.

“Happy?”

“Very.” Weiss nodded, starting to follow her.

“What’s your name, by the way? I would give you one, but I’m sure you won’t like it.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Weiss almost cut off harshly. “My name is Weiss.”

The faunus stopped, humming for a second.

“Weiss. How unusual.”

But before the smaller woman could say anything, Blake lunged forward, transforming quickly into her beast form and trotting away silently. With a bone deep sigh, Weiss followed her.

 

**** 

 

“Oh, would you stop whining?” Weiss sighed, focused on applying the red-green paste. “It doesn’t hurt that bad.”

A low growl answered her, and when she looked up, Blake hissed, her ears flat on her head and her front paws clawing at the ground.

“You are such a crybaby.” The smaller woman mumbled, her attention returning to the task at hand.

Taking a little more of the thick paste on the flat rock beside her, she proceeded to spread it on the small wounds, earning again a low growl, the leg shaking, but Weiss grabbed it firmly.

“I’m nearly done.” She reported.

Working quickly, Weiss was soon finished, and she wrapped it in red leaves to keep it together somewhat, then she patted the dark, muscled thigh of the beast.

“There you go. Now, you have to rest.”

The beast grunted, standing on three legs, and started off towards the tree beside them and quickly climbed on the thick, low branch, leaving the injured leg hanging in the air as Blake laid down. Following her with her eyes as she tried to wash her hands with leaves and a little water Weiss huffed, stopping to rest her fists on her hips.

“Did you climb there to get away from me?” she asked, a little offended.

Golden eyes stared at her for a second, then the large head moved, leaning on its front paws, away from Weiss. The smaller woman sighed, resuming her cleaning.

“Thank you for taking care of me, Weiss. Oh, it was nothing, really!” she mumbled under her breath.

“You do realise I can hear you, right?”

Glancing over her shoulder, Weiss could see that Blake was still in the same place, but this time she was back to her human form, her injured leg still dangling from the edge.

“Of course I do.”

That made Blake huff, a small smile pulling her lips as she followed Weiss with her eyes, the smaller woman discarding the dirty leaves and sitting at the base of the tree, fishing an apple from her backpack and her gourd, taking a couple of sips from it.

“Thank you.”

Blake’s voice was soft, leaning her cheek against the bark as she kept her eyes on Weiss. The smaller woman took the time to swallow, bowing slightly mockingly.

“You’re welcome.”

They fell silent for a long moment, Weiss biting in the fruit with a pleased hum before searching in her bag again, finding the small pouch she used to store the nuts and berries they had found. After Weiss’s meal, returning everything in her bag, the smaller woman heard Blake shift, grunting quietly.

“I didn’t know you were a healer,” the faunus finally said.

Weiss’s hands stopped for a hot second before resuming what they were doing.

“I’m not really a healer,” she conceded. “I can only treat wounds. But, after I got my scar, I took interest.”

Her left hand lifted to her face, touching with the tips of her fingers the rosy line that crossed over her left eye and finished a little past her cheekbone, leaving the rest of her cheek intact.

“Mm, yes, your scar,” the faunus shifted again, trying to see Weiss better from her perch. “I wanted to ask about that.”

The smaller woman sighed, leaning her back against the trunk as she closed her eyes.

“And I’d prefer you don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t like talking about it.”

Blake hummed, seemingly thinking about what she just said, and Weiss almost prayed for the faunus not to ask further.

“This isn’t a scar you had by accident, right? This is a battle scar.”

Maybe she should have prayed.

“Yes, it is.”

“Huh. So you fought against other humans?”

“Yes.”

“Did you kill other humans?”

“Why do you want to know?” Weiss finally snapped, opening her eyes. “I told you I didn’t like talking about it.”

Blake shrugged, unfazed by Weiss’s raised voice.

“You still answered my questions, though.”

The smaller woman narrowed her eyes at her, the corner of her lips twitching, but she glanced away, crossing her arms on her chest.

It was going to be a long few days for Weiss’s patience.

“I don’t understand that,” Blake waved at her, regaining her attention. “I don’t understand why humans do that.”

“Do what?” the smaller woman asked, her voice tight.

“Don’t talk about things!” the faunus shrugged. “We talk about everything, good or bad. No secrets, no hard feelings. More often than not, we realise that we’re not alone in our situation. I just don’t understand why humans don’t do that.”

“And I don’t understand why you don’t wear clothes, but I’m not bothering you about it.”

Blake laughed, swinging her injured leg slightly, but Weiss kept her gaze forward, her arms held tightly against her.

“You’re so guarded, as if you want to keep it a secret you killed one of your own.”

The small woman jumped to her feet, pointing a finger in the faunus’s direction, her fist held so tight it was shaking.

“I told you-” Weiss started, her voice low, almost quiet, but shaking with contained anger.

“Is it that hard because it was someone you cared about?”

“Shut _up_!”

The smaller woman nearly roared the words, her entire frame trembling, her face twisted in fury, and Blake looked genuinely surprised at Weiss’s reaction, but before the faunus could say anything, the smaller woman grabbed her backpack, swinging it on her back.

“I’m leaving. I don’t care if you die following me.”

And as she was about to start off, Blake spoke, her voice low and quiet.

“I did it, too. I killed one of my own, someone I cared about.”

Weiss stopped in her tracks, but kept her eyes forward.

“I told you; sometimes, we realise others are in the same situation,” the faunus reminded softly.

Only now Weiss did glance over her shoulder. Blake kept her gaze down, her features soft and tired, and it was only now that she understood what Blake was doing when she stumbled on her, and her anger fade away.

“I guess we’re both running away from ourselves, huh?”

The faunus huffed, a small smile on her lips.

“That’s an understatement.” She murmured.

A silence fell on them for a few seconds until Blake sighed, shifting on the branch.

“Look, I… I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would be _that_ upset.”

“I told you I didn’t want to talk about it.” Weiss softly let out.

“And technically you didn’t; I did. Look, I just… I’m sorry. Don’t go?”

Half-turning on her heels, Weiss stayed silent long enough for Blake to look up, and locked their eyes together.

“Why not?” the smaller woman asked, her voice even.

The faunus shifted again, lowering her gaze to her own hands as she toyed with the bark of the branch.

“It has been a long time since I traveled with someone, actually. I miss the company. And, wouldn’t it be sad if my leg went bad after you tortured me for half an hour?”

A slow, steadily growing smile pulled Weiss’s lips, and she chuckled quietly.

“You really are a crybaby.”

The faunus shrugged, a smile of her own on her lips.

“Usually, I’m alone when I’m whining.”

The smaller woman huffed, shaking her head, and before long she turned around, facing Blake, her features serious.

“Apologies accepted. But, if I stay, we will have to talk about boundaries.”

When she saw the faunus nod eagerly, she started her way back, pausing for a second as she was setting her backpack on the ground to glance up.

“And clothes.”


	2. Chapter 2

She woke up slowly, feeling something soft brush her face every few seconds, and she swatted it away, annoyed, shifting to be comfortable to try and go back to sleep. But the thing came back, brushing her nose this time, and she swatted it again with a low growl, furrowing her eyebrows. She must have the biggest frown someone ever wore on her face, but she knew, she just _knew_ it would come back, and when it did, she sat up straight, letting out a cry of annoyance as she opened her eyes.

Blake, in her beast form, was still lying on the low branch just above her, and with the tip of her tail, she kept brushing over Weiss’s face. But when the smaller woman glared at her, the faunus slowly brought her tail back up, changing into her human form with an amused smile.

“Good morning.” She greeted.

“So far it’s not really good,” Weiss dryly retorted. “Why did you wake me up?”

“Oh, I missed your wonderful company,” Blake still smiled, seeming only even more amused when the smaller woman narrowed her eyes. “Also, I found this when I was hunting. I was wondering if it was important.”

The faunus dropped what seemed to be a folded sheet of paper, letting it fall slowly beside Weiss for her to take. And she did, frowning at the wetted parts, probably because Blake carried it in her mouth when she got back.

“Why would it be important?” she asked as she unfolded the paper with a sigh.

“Well, there’s your face on it, so you tell me.”

“What?” the smaller woman quietly breathed, confused, but when the sheet was in front of her, her face blanked.

There was indeed her face, a portrait quickly and roughly made right under the word written in capital letters.

_WANTED_

Her pale-blue eyes glanced down under the portrait, taking in the words there as well.

_Charged of:_

_Treason against the crown_

_Murder_

_Property damage_

_Bring back dead or alive to King Whitley, Lord and protector of the kingdom of Atlas._

Weiss’s hands tightened, crushing the page she was holding slightly as her eyes darted to the amount of the reward, her heart sinking in her chest at the numerus zeros it held.

“So? What does it say?” Blake asked, trying to have a good look on the page.

Weiss jumped, having forgotten for a moment that she wasn’t alone, but she only glanced up at the faunus for a second, returning her eyes on the paper in front of her.

“Can’t you read? It’s written right there,” the smaller woman let out quietly.

“No, indeed, I can’t read. That’s precisely the point of me, asking you.” Blake retorted, sarcasm dripping in her voice.

Surprised, Weiss looked up, her eyebrows raised.

“Really?”

“Most faunus don’t know how to read, Weiss. The only ones who know are human’s pets.”

She dropped the last sentence with disgust, huffing as she shifted on her branch, her gaze away. For a moment, Weiss stayed silent, staring at her, but the faunus frowned, as if she could feel her stare, and glanced back at her.

“So?” she asked again, raising a single dark eyebrow, pointing at the paper with her chin.

The smaller woman didn’t move, holding her stare for a few more seconds before looking away, sighing deeply.

“It’s a wanted poster,” she reported.

Better be honest with her, anyway. It wasn’t like Blake would give her back to the authorities, right?

“What does that mean?”

“It means that people will be looking for me. They will bring me back dead or alive.”

The faunus huffed, gaining Weiss’s attention up to her.

“I’d like to see them try,” she said. “But why are they looking for you?”

The smaller woman sighed, a bone deep breath, as she leaned her back against the trunk, folding the paper slowly.

“I committed crimes, Blake. I… I killed someone.”

Blake hummed, lowering her head to lean her cheek against the bark, her eyes focused on the small woman that seemed a thousand miles away, now.

“The person you cared about.” The faunus said softly.

But Weiss shook her head, gritting her teeth as she balled her hands into fists.

“It’s not like that,” she murmured. “It’s complicated.”

“Why is it complicated?”

“Look, I just…” the smaller woman started quietly, taking a moment to swallow thickly. “I don’t want to talk about it. Boundaries.”

Blake stared at her for a moment, seeing her swallow several times as she kept her eyes on the ground, but eventually she hummed, and Weiss bowed her head slightly, thanking her silently.

“I just woke up,” the smaller woman said, her voice uneven as she tried to change the subject. “I need to freshen up.”

With that she stood, stepping towards the foot of the ridge to her bag to take her gourd before starting towards the nearby stream, feeling Blake’s eyes on her neck.

 

**** 

 

She narrowed her eyes, focusing on her breath and her target, a couple feet in front of her. She could feel the weight of her knife in her hand, the blade cold between her fingers, and she knew that all was needed was a flick of the wrist. She could still hear the heavy accent of her mentor as he said it over and over again wile training her.

 _To throw knives, lass, it’s all in the wrist_.

After taking a sharp breath, she moved quickly, flicking her wrist with just enough power for the knife to leave her hand twirling, and for the blade to sink in the tree, through the paper, right beside the lines of her earlier throws.

Maybe throwing knives at a portrait of herself was talking more that it should.

But she didn’t stop, the motions distracting, and the focus needed for this a welcome change as she didn’t let herself think, all of her concentration on her activity.

She knew she wasn’t the best at this. She lacked power and speed, but she knew her mentor could count on her for her precision.

It was after about a dozen throw that Weiss noticed, in the corner of her eyes, a dark silhouette keeping its distances, waiting. And after throwing the knife again, the smaller woman quickly glanced over, noticing that Blake, in her beast form, was sitting silently on the side, watching her as she walked to rip the knife from the bark and settle back at throwing distance.

“You know, I like you better in this form,” Weiss said above her shoulder as she threw her knife again.

Golden eyes turned to her as the large head tilted to the side, and the smaller woman took the time to stretch as she walked to the tree before answering.

“You don’t talk.” She smiled, pulling on the hilt of the knife to free it from the trunk.

Never in her life had she thought she would see a panther (or whatever Blake was) roll its eyes, but she did, and it made her chuckle as Blake brought her tail back, curling it around her and resting it on her front paws. And as Weiss continued throwing her knife, the smaller woman would glance at her from time to time, only noticing that she wasn’t moving, not even a single inch.

The figure of stillness.

Weiss didn’t even knew how long she did this, but when her portrait was filled with very precise, and very ordered cuts, covering Weiss’s face, she stopped, sheathing her blade at her hip as she whipped her forehead, covered in beads of sweat. Taking a moment to admire her work as she was catching her breath, Weiss turned to Blake, sitting in the same spot as silently as she did. Her pale-blue eyes looked down, at her injured leg that she held slightly on the side, trying to put as less weight on it as possible.

“Let me take a look at your leg,” Weiss suggested, already stepping closer. “I took a chance the other day with this, I don’t even know if it will work on you, since you’re not human.”

The faunus kept her eyes on her but still leaned the other way, giving some space for the smaller woman to inspect her injuries as Weiss kneeled in front of her, her touch feather-like near the thick past. Some of the leaves had fallen off when Blake went to hunt, but the mixture mostly stayed in place, and as it was starting to dry, the smaller woman carefully whipped it off, making Blake very quietly whine a few times.

Weiss was surprised to see that it had healed that much already, and she carefully ran a hand over the wounds, feeling it very faintly as Blake flashed her teeth, but stayed silent.

“It’s almost healed, already,” she murmured, astonished. “How? I mean, it was so bad… Does it hurt, still?”

The dark leg pulled away, and Blake transformed, returning her leg closer to Weiss’s hands.

“We heal faster than humans, apparently,” the faunus shrugged, keeping her eyes down on Weiss’s hands. “Well, your reaction suggests it. And it hurt when I put all my weight on it, and when you touch it, but it’s very faint.”

The smaller woman hummed, looking over the wounds on her skin, searching for any swelling or red-rimmed wounds, but they were all clean, starting to scar already.

“Fascinating.” She whispered. “In any case, you should wash it. And not with your tongue,” she added, catching Blake’s attention. “It might be good for injuries, but I don’t think you’ll like it in your stomach.”

Blake raised a single eyebrow as she exhaled loudly through her nose, but still hummed, before scrunching up her nose.

“It will give you the chance to wash a little, too. You stink.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yes, you have the scent of a… Of a…” the faunus trailed off, sniffing the air.

The smaller woman scoffed, turning around and starting to her backpack but Blake followed her, still sniffing.

“I don’t know… it reminds me of flowers, but it’s mixed with something else and it stinks!”

“Okay, look, the last time I really washed was back home, with flowery soaps and perfumed baths.”

The faunus said nothing, continuing sniffing the air, and Weiss had to contain herself not to grunt in agony, until a flash of concern settled in golden eyes, Blake stepping closer.

“I smell blood, too,” she said, looking over Weiss’s frame quickly. “Are you injured and you didn’t tell me?”

The smaller woman froze, a blush creeping steadily from her pale neck up to her cheeks as she turned away from the faunus, busying herself as she searched through her bag.

“Well, it’s that time of the month, so no, I’m not injured.” Weiss grumbled.

“Oh,” Blake only let out, taking a considerable step back. “You’re in heat.”

“I’m not-!” the smaller woman exclaimed as she turned around to face the faunus, this time crimson red. “It’s not like that!”

“Huh. So you’re not itching to mate with someone?”

Weiss felt like she could cook a meal on her face at that moment, and she tried to hide her embarrassment by pinching the bridge of her nose, holding her arms tightly to her chest.

“No, I don’t,” the smaller woman mumbled, hoping this conversation would end.

Blake nodded, humming, and she crossed her arms as she looked over Weiss, contemplating for a moment.

“Well, I’m good for a good while, but, even in heat, I wouldn’t want to mate with you.”

Weiss threw her hands in front of her, staring up at the sky because she just _couldn’t_ look at the faunus.

“When did I ask that?” she exclaimed, near hysterical.

“You didn’t, but, you know, just putting it out there. Just so you know.”

“Well, thank you for informing me,” Weiss let out, her voice tight and short. “Now that things are crystal clear between us, would you be so kind to go back to your gloomy big cat form and lead me somewhere I can actually dive and hopefully drown, so I can forget we ever had this conversation?”

Blake stared at her, very unamused by what the smaller woman just said.

“I’m not a cat.”

 

**** 

 

“Huh. You’re more muscular than I first thought.”

Clutching her clothes against her front as she felt a wave of heat burning her face, Weiss stared accusingly at Blake, sitting on a flat rock beside a peaceful lake, who was now shamelessly eyeing the smaller woman as if it was the most natural thing to do.

“I just want to bathe in peace! Don’t you have a hare to hunt? Or a place to be?”

The faunus tilted her head, one of her ears flicking in the soft breeze.

“What do you mean? I’m not disturbing.”

“You are disturbing my sanity _and_ my patience.” Was the immediate answer.

Blake seemed slightly offended by that, but she stayed (finally!) quiet, looking the other way with a huff. As Weiss quickly undressed, hoping Blake wouldn’t make another comment, she saw the faunus dip her left leg in the water, grimacing slightly before she started to delicately rub, carefully washing the rest of the medicinal paste away. The smaller woman took advantage of that and, as quietly and quickly as she could, she stepped in the lake, the water cold against her skin.

The mud under her feet was slippery, and so she stepped carefully into the water, letting out a shaky exhale when the cold water reached her upper thighs, and when she heard a short laugh, she froze.

“Huh. So you _do_ have fur.”

Dropping in the water to her chin without a second thought, she glared furiously at Blake, who only smiled, satisfied with Weiss’s reaction.

“It’s so easy to embarrass you.”

“You.” Weiss snarled, lifting her arm above the water. “Turn.”

“Uh… Turn around?” the faunus asked, pointing over her shoulder questioningly.

“You know exactly what I mean. If you intend on watching, then do so _silently_.”

Blake rolled her eyes, but still did as she was told and transformed into the dark beast, laying comfortably on the rock as her tail curled behind her lazily.

Everything about her screamed satisfaction.

Gritting her teeth, Weiss turned around, trying to forget the damn cat as she stepped further into the lake, noticing in wonder how clear the water was. After a few steps again, she dived, the coolness of the water suddenly calming her entirely. She took her time. As she swam underwater, the cold making her more alert, she had never felt more alive.

When she came back to the surface, brushing her hair out of her face, she felt the sun warming her face, see, for the first time in years it felt, the clear blue sky, and the green mountains boarding the other side of the lake, a swift distinction between the forest of Forever Fall and the Emerald Forest. As she swam there, alone, with nothing but the sounds of the birds chirping nearby and the breeze on the water, Weiss felt a strange feeling envelop her.

Peace. Serenity.

In this place, she didn’t do anything wrong. Nobody wanted her dead. Here, she was just… existing.

And she never wanted to leave.

And so she stayed, laying on her back, moving her hands slightly in the water just to keep floating, and she closed her eyes, feeling so light, she thought she could fly away with the breeze.

She didn’t know how long she was there. With the sun warming her skin, she didn’t care if she was there the whole day. But at some point, she heard the distinctive splashes of someone swimming closer, and reluctantly, she opened her eyes.

Blake was coming rather quickly, but when she was close she slowed her pace, almost to give Weiss time to process she was coming.

“I thought you didn’t like water.” Was the first thing Weiss said to her.

Her voice was so soft and quiet, not wanting to disturb the peacefulness around them.

“I do like water,” Blake answered with a smile, her voice as quiet as Weiss’s. “I just thought it was a little cold.”

The smaller woman hummed, closing her eyes again. She could feel Blake’s movement under the water, a soft wave under her.

“Can I join you?” the faunus asked, her voice even more quiet than before.

Weiss furrowed her eyebrows, but kept her eyes closed.

“Isn’t that what you just did?”

“Yes, but I wanted to share the peace you were having, so… Can I join you?”

The smaller woman opened her eyes again, feeling like the colors were even brighter than before, and looked over to lock her eyes with Blake. The faunus was waiting, her features soft, and Weiss had the feeling that if she said no, Blake wouldn’t mind. But, she thought as she returned her gaze to the sky, that this feeling was worth sharing.

“Of course,” she let out in a breath.

She heard soft splashes as Blake moved, and quickly glanced over to see that the faunus was floating like her, on her back, her head right beside Weiss’s. Feeling her stare, Blake looked to the side, and she smiled when their eyes locked. Weiss found no strength in her to not smile back, and so she did, and they both looked over at the sky, a smile on their lips in their shared peaceful feeling.

Weiss had to say, even if they weren’t talking, just being here like this, with someone, was reassuring. She hoped that Blake felt the same way.

“You remind me of her,” the faunus said quietly after a long moment, earning Weiss’s attention as she looked at Blake.

“Her?” the smaller woman asked, as quietly as Blake did.

“Ilia. The person I cared about.”

The smaller woman stared at her for a moment, taking in the faunus’s expression. Blake kept her eyes to the skin, but her face was relaxed, her features tired and she held sadness in her eyes that made Weiss’s heart sink in her chest. She hummed quietly, returning her eyes to the sky, waiting to see if Blake wanted to share more.

“She was petite, like you, but you’re more muscular,” the faunus continued then, her voice as quiet as before. “She had balls of steel, like you. She knew how to fight, like you.”

She took a very deep, long breath, exhaling slowly.

“At some point, she was the most important person in my life. I loved her so much.” She murmured.

“Why did you do it?”

Weiss had breathed these words, half hoping that the wind would carry it away.

“I was misguided,” Blake answered after a short silence. “At the time, I thought I didn’t have a choice. She tried to stop me when we were out on a mi- When I wanted to do something I thought was important.” She said instead, not caring about how her change of sentence was evident. “She tried to warn me. I didn’t listen. I had to do this, for the cause.”

She took a short, sharp breath, closing her eyes.

“We fought,” she let out shakily. “I… We sparred so many times. She knew I always won. She knew she was going to lose. But she… She was so stubborn.”

Blake bit her lip, her eyes blinking open, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Turns out she was right. I was wrong. And I… I killed her for nothing. So I left.”

Weiss had never been good to comfort people. She didn’t know what to do or what to say when people were in distress, and instead of putting her foot in her mouth, she just waited, letting the soft breeze lift Blake’s words until they were far away, until she heard the faunus let out a long, shaky exhale, before speaking again.

“Is that why you keep teasing me? Because I remind you of her?”

A short, strangled laugh answered her, and when she looked over, Blake had a small smile on her lips.

“Maybe,” the faunus conceded. “And I don’t intend on stopping.”

The smaller woman huffed, rolling her eyes, but she was glad when she heard the quiet chuckle Blake let out.

“We should head back,” Weiss softly suggested. “I can feel the wrinkles on my hands, and I don’t want to look like an old lady yet.”

The faunus snorted but she moved, swimming in place as she waited for the smaller woman, and for a short second, she almost looked embarrassed.

“Thanks for listening. I needed that.”

But before Weiss could say anything, Blake swam away after a quick nod, towards the land, leaving the smaller woman as she followed at a slower pace.

“You’re welcome,” she murmured to herself.

Weiss had the time to see Blake transform before she climbed up, shaking herself up to get rid of as much water she could before laying on the flat rock again, in a ray of sun, and her dark fur would dry soon enough. Weiss, however, enjoyed the swim, still making her way lazily back to the land, and after making sure Blake wasn’t looking, the large head laying the other way with closed eyes, Weiss stepped out of the water and towards her clothes. Still feeling the peacefulness from earlier, she took the time to twist her hair, drying them as much as she could, keeping her back turned to the faunus just in case.

As she took her shirt, frowning down at it as she was thinking about how dirty it was, she felt something brush against her back, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. As she was about to turn around, clutching her shirt against her front, a few angry words burning her tongue when Blake firmly grabbed her arm, stopping her in her movement as her eyes were fixated on her back, her expression neutral. A spike of anxiety made the smaller woman struggle, trying to break free, but the faunus’s grip only tightened, and as Blake was reaching with her other hand, Weiss pulled roughly on her arm.

“Let. Go.” She ordered, locking her eyes with golden ones.

“These aren’t battle scars,” the faunus stated, her voice tight. “Who did this to you?”

“I said, let me go.” Weiss insisted, hissing through her teeth. “We talked about this. Boundaries.”

Blake stared at her for a few seconds before her eyes drifted down, along Weiss’s back, following the short, swollen lines crisscrossing across her back. Some were older, just a shade paler than her skin, others were still pink, more recent. The faunus glanced up, and this time, Weiss was staring at the tree, her features hard, her jaw clenched, and Blake could feel how tense she was.

Boundaries.

Blake softly let go of her arm, taking a step back as Weiss hurriedly put her shirt on, pointedly ignoring the faunus as she silently dressed, only turning around after she finished setting her belt around her hips, but when she did, Blake was nowhere to be seen.

 

**** 

 

The sun had set for a while now until Blake returned, stepping silently and making her way to Weiss, who was lying comfortably in her bedroll, her breathing slow and deep in slumber. The faunus sat there for a while, looking over her frame as she slept, wondering about what she was dreaming about. After a moment, Blake gently nudged Weiss’s shoulder with her nose, enough for the smaller woman to sigh in her sleep, but when the faunus kept insisting, Weiss let out a soft whine, shifting, bringing her hand to her face as she rubbed at her eyes, taking in a sharp breath when she woke up.

“What the… Blake?” Weiss mumbled under her breath, her voice still rough from sleep as she tried to see what had woken her up. “I was sleeping, what do you want?”

Her face was scrunched up, her hair a wild mess even if it was trapped in a braid, and she had some blanket wrinkles on her face, but she just blinked, trying to focus her eyes on the dark beast. But instead of changing form, Blake only made a soft, deep sound, nudging her shoulder again until the smaller woman pushed her back, starting to get annoyed.

“What is it?” she snapped. “I just want to sleep, what’s with yo-”

Blake stepped closer, rubbing the side of her head against Weiss’s face and interrupting her effectively, and the smaller woman grabbed her head out of instinct. The faunus then nuzzled the inside of her wrist until one small hand was on her head, and when Weiss let it slide down to her neck, Blake seemed so satisfied that it made her huff.

“Are you asking to be petted?” the smaller woman asked in disbelief.

Again, the faunus let out a soft sound, this time letting a heavy paw drop across Weiss as Blake laid down beside her, which made the smaller woman raise a single eyebrow.

“Cuddles?” she asked, this time curious.

This time, the sound Blake made was longer, still soft, but it almost sounded annoyed as the large head rubbed against the smaller woman’s face again, making her roll her eyes with a sigh.

“I do wonder what part of ‘personal space’ you don’t understand.”

The large head stopped for a second before pulling back, her pointed ears jerking back, but not pinned down like she did when she was angry. No, Blake was hurt.

“Why don’t you just turn and tell me what you’re trying to do?” Weiss tried. “I don’t understand big, gloomy cat language.”

This time, her ears went down, and the heavy paw lifted from her as the faunus pulled away as the faunus stood, but before she could go, Weiss sat up.

“Okay, I’m sorry about that. But you wake me up in the middle of the night and I don’t understand what you want, what do you expect me to do?”

In the dark, the only thing Weiss could see vaguely the shape of the dark faunus in front of her, but she could also see her bright, almost glowing golden eye as she looked back at her. Blake’s bright eyes stared at Weiss for a couple of seconds before the massive silhouette moved again, stepping closer, and very delicately, Blake leaned her large head against Weiss’s again, sighing softly in the crook of her neck. The smaller woman tensed, but when she realised that the faunus wasn’t moving, she raised a hand, hesitantly, and carefully brushed her fingers against the soft fur, on her neck.

“Are you… trying to comfort me?”

The soft sound again, and Blake nuzzling closer gave Weiss her answer. With a sigh, the smaller woman leaned her cheek against the large head, right on Blake’s forehead, her fingers gently scratching right under a pointed ear.

“I can’t believe you,” Weiss whispered. “I was fine thirty seconds ago. Why did you wake me up?”

No answer came, obviously, and with another sigh the smaller woman laid down again, letting the faunus rest her heavy head on her chest, still stroking gently at the dark fur, and when her fingers darted across one pointed ear, she felt the large frame move as Blake sighed, content.

“Your ears are so soft,” Weiss mused under her breath, closing her eyes.

She felt the large head move, Blake bumping her nose against Weiss’s chin, nestling her head closer, and she was surprised to hear the smaller woman laugh softly, feeling Weiss’s arm wrap around her neck and her other hand starting scratching, too.

“You really are just a big cat.”

The faunus growled quietly, making Weiss chuckle again, but her hands were soft, gentle, her fingers brushing through the fur and her nails scratching lightly, and after a moment, Blake closed her eyes, too.

The faunus was on the verge of sleep, lulled by Weiss’s touch, and she barely registered the soft words she said, her voice so quiet that the breeze could take it away.

“Thank you, Blake.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, that was a lot of information to process, I think. I hope you liked it!


	3. Chapter 3

She woke up slowly, feeling, for the first time in a long time, well rested. With a quiet groan, she stretched, but when she wanted to roll on her back she bumped into something, and as she looked over her shoulder, she remembered that Blake slept with her as she could see the large frame of the faunus’s beast form. As she was about to sneak out of her bed roll, Blake changed form, and they were back to back, silent and still for a while.

“I thought you were sleeping,” Weiss finally said.

“I’m awake for a while, now. I was waiting for you to wake up.”

The smaller woman sighed, already knowing what Blake wanted to talk about.

“Why?” she asked anyway.

“I don’t understand,” the faunus let out quietly.

Weiss glanced over her shoulder, surprised, only seeing the back of Blake’s head and her ears low, almost pinned to her scalp.

“Understand what?”

“The scars, on your back. Someone did that to you.”

“Blake-”

“I don’t understand how someone can do that to their own kind,” the faunus interrupted her, sounding confused.

Weiss took a moment before saying anything, her hands balling into tight fists.

“Me too.”

She felt Blake move behind her, leaning slightly against her shoulder as the faunus was looking over her shoulder.

“Who did this to you?”

“What does it matter? As if you could do something about it.”

“Then why?”

“Look,” Weiss sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t need your pity.”

“It’s not pity,” the faunus answered instantly, turning a little more into her. “It’s concern.”

“Nevertheless, I don’t want to talk about it.”

Blake stared at her for a moment, Weiss stubbornly keeping her gaze forward, before she turned back.

“There are a lot of things you don’t want to talk about.”

“You’re very observant, aren’t you?”

The faunus exhaled loudly through her nose, irritated, but she didn’t insist on the matter.

“You told me you knew where you were going, but you didn’t tell me _where_ you were going. Maybe I know a few shortcuts and the likes.”

“Mistral.”

Blake waited for an explanation, but the silence only stretched, and the faunus sighed again.

“Why Mistral?” she asked then, hoping the smaller woman would answer this.

“My sister.” Weiss sighed. “She… She probably knows what I did by now, but… I don’t know where else to go.”

The smaller woman said the last part in a breath, her voice soft and thin, and as Blake looked over her shoulder, Weiss sat, turning her back to her.

“As for my back, I already got my revenge,” she said, her voice even as she stood, smoothing the wrinkles of her shirt as she kept her back to the faunus. “But the memories are still there. The scars too. It didn’t change anything. So stop insisting.”

And she took off towards her backpack at the foot of the ridge, taking her gourd before starting towards the stream. Looking back over her shoulder discreetly, she saw that Blake had changed form, and was silently following her from a distance.

 

**** 

 

“Is your leg really alright enough for that?” Weiss asked as she shouldered the strap of her bag, eyeing Blake critically.

Golden eyes stared at her pointedly as the large frame moved, letting out a loud, irritated breath through her nose. At what Weiss rolled her eyes, bringing her hands up in defeat.

“Fine, I was just making sure,” she grumbled, waving her hand in front of her, mockingly bowing as Blake walked past her to lead.

And so, they took off, continuing on Weiss’s journey. The smaller woman still kept close attention to the faunus, making sure she didn’t lie about her injuries, but Blake only seemed to get stronger every day, and so, she let it go.

But still, Blake’s behavior was troubling her.

Ever since Weiss woke up the day after the faunus knew about the scars, Blake seemed to prefer her beast form, only rarely transforming to give information or indication, but nothing more. The large panther would only wander around Weiss as they traveled, as silently as ever, and after a week of this… silent treatment it seemed, Weiss started to miss the snarky comments and teasing of the faunus.

After two weeks, one day, traveling through the red sea of the forest, it seemed normal until Blake stopped, glancing from one side to the other, her ears flicking. Instantly, Weiss was on guard, resting her hand on the hilt of her rapier as she glanced around, too.

“What is it?” she whispered, stepping closer to the faunus.

One pointed ear jerked back, Blake wiping around, lowering herself as she started glancing up in the trees, on her guards, and so did Weiss, wishing she had the same sense of hearing as the faunus.

But at that moment, she heard a branch snap, confirmed by Blake’s ears perking, and she unsheathed her sword, taking a few steps forward, keeping her eyes up in the trees, trying to see past the low leafs what was hiding there. Then, she heard a loud thud behind her, and Blake letting out a low grunt, and she spun on her heels, her hand squeezing the hilt.

What seemed to be an oversized monkey had fallen on Blake’s back, and the faunus was trying to get it off, her ears pinned to her scalp and growling, until she threw herself on the ground, making both of them roll on the ground. Returning to her feet at a lightning fast speed, flashing her teeth as she was about to hiss, Weiss was astonished when she saw Blake perk up, abandoning her guarded stance, and as the monkey was returning to its feet, the large panther happily jumped on it, tackling it to the ground again.

The monkey shrieked loudly, wiggling to get away, but the large paws maintained it down before Blake simply dropped on top of it, and she proceeded to give a large, long lick at the side of its head, making it shriek again, wiggling even more under the large frame.

“Blake?” Weiss called, her rapier still in hand, unsure if it was okay to sheath it yet.

The large head turned towards her, seemingly having forgotten about her, the pink tip of a tongue still passed her lips, and Weiss had to bite the inside of her cheek not to laugh. The large faunus stood, trotting happily to her before transforming, and a large smile was on Blake’s lips as she glanced over her shoulder towards the monkey.

“It’s okay, he’s a friend,” she reported, waiting for her to sheath her blade before turning back.

The monkey finally got back to its feet, shuffling in place a little, and it was now that Weiss noticed it’s eyes.

Electric sky blue.

“Come on, Sun, she’s a friend,” Blake still smiled, waving at the monkey to get closer.

It sat on its haunches for a short moment, eying Weiss for a second before stepping closer, transforming into a young, tall blond man with a long monkey tail curling behind. And, Weiss quickly realised with a blush, he was also very naked.

“When did you start making friends with humans, Blake?” the man asked, glancing quickly over at Blake before returning his attention to the smaller woman.

“Goodness,” Weiss mumbled under her breath as she spun around on her heels, a dark blush creeping up her neck.

Blake gave her a sidelong glance, raising a single eyebrow, as the smaller woman kept her gaze forward.

“Are you okay?” the faunus asked, tilting her head to the side.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? I mean, you’re kind of… turning away.”

Weiss shifted her weight on her other leg, crossing her arms over her chest.

“He’s naked,” she whispered, and Blake rolled her eyes.

“This again? I thought you were over it after you stopped making comments about me.”

“It’s not the same!” She insisted, keeping her voice down as she quickly glanced over her shoulder, turning crimson red. “You’re a woman!”

“Uh… So?”

“So, it’s easier for me with you. Because we’re both women, we’re made the same way, and I’ve never- I’ve never seen a man before.”

The smaller woman almost breathed the last part, letting it out hastily as she only held her arms closer to her chest, her blush darkening as Blake only smiled smugly.

“Huh. You’re embarrassed.”

“You clearly deserve an award for ‘Queen of stating the obvious’.”

“So, uh… I’m Sun? Is it a human custom to not look at someone?” the man asked, a little dumbfounded, apparently not hearing the quiet conversation between the women.

“No, she’s just embarrassed,” Blake informed him.

“Oh, why so?” he asked.

Weiss gritted her teeth. He sounded genuinely concerned.

“Because the concept of clothes is completely foreign to you, and I’m not yet adjusted to it. I don’t think I’ll ever be.” She added quietly.

“What are you saying, of course we know what clothes are? I mean, everyone in the village back home wears tunics and stuff. I didn’t bring any because I hadn’t thought I would change before getting home.”

Weiss straightened her back at that, narrowing her eyes at Blake who seemed mildly upset about what Sun had just said.

“Is that so?” the smaller woman hissed, staring accusingly at the other woman, who only shrugged.

“I wanted to mess with you.”

Weiss slapped her arm before stomping away without saying anything, and it made Blake laugh so hard that Sun had to ask her three times if she was alright.

 

**** 

 

“So, how did you find me?” Blake asked, sitting at the foot of a tree with the other faunus while Weiss kept herself busy, searching the nearby bushes for berries and herbs.

“I wasn’t searching for you, so I’m going to say it was luck,” Sun answered with a sigh. “I was passing by and I recognised your scent.”

Weiss heard the soft hum the feline faunus gave as she sat on her haunches, puffing a breath of air out to make her bangs fly off her face, her eyes trailing on the red leaves and the small bushes. The silence behind her stretched as she quietly gasped, her eyes picking on a shade of red more bright than the leaves on the ground: strawberries. Scurrying to the bush, she sat there, almost in awe in front of the small, wild strawberries, trying to remember the last time she ate some.

“Are you alright, Weiss?” she heard Blake ask.

Glancing towards her voice, she saw the feline faunus sitting straight, already flexing a leg under her to stand as her golden eyes were fixated on Weiss, but the smaller woman raised a hand, smiling.

“Yes, I just found some strawberries and I got excited.”

The loud gasp Sun let out made her smile falter, and the rapid, approaching footsteps almost made her cringe. As she could see his feet in the corner of her eyes, she kept her head low, focused on the small, bright red berries, her cheeks steadily growing as red as them, until she heard Sun hum for a second, thoughtful.

Then, the leaves rustling excessively made her furrow her brows, and when she risked a glance up, the monkey faunus had pulled on a branch until it gave out, and was trying to tie it up around his hips, the leaves hiding every part of him Weiss didn’t want to see. Abandoning the idea of tying the branch, Sun just held it in place as he sat beside the smaller woman, smiling to her when he caught her eyes.

“Thank you,” she breathed, bowing her head slightly.

“No problem. I wanted to enjoy them with you!”

And he reached at the biggest strawberry, taking it between his fingers before pulling, ripping it from its tiny branch and throwing it in his mouth, munching on it happily as his tail swished behind him. As the both of them treated themselves, Blake approached silently and sat on the other side of Weiss, leaving the small woman in the middle. As the feline faunus took a berry and examined it, turning it between her fingers this way and that doubtfully, Weiss glanced at her.

“Why aren’t you covering yourself, now that I know you know the concept?”

“Well, you’re used to, so I don’t see why I would start to bother,” she answered, frowning at the red fruit in her hand.

The smaller woman shifted slightly, uncomfortable.

“Aren’t you… I don’t know… Since Sun is here?”

“Nudity is a very common thing, since we keep changing form throughout the day,” Sun answered for Blake, his tail curling as he threw a berry in the air into his mouth. “Besides, I’ve seen Blake so many times that it doesn’t affect me, anymore.”

The pointed ears slightly jerked back as Blake looked only mildly offended, and she threw the strawberry she was holding at the monkey faunus, who caught it with his mouth, whooping excitedly when he succeeded. The feline faunus rolled her eyes, but a fond smile was still on her lips as she bent over, retrieving a few berries and offering them to Weiss.

“Oh yeah, since I got you,” Sun said with his mouth full after a while, his tail gently moving behind him. “Adam’s looking for you.”

Although he said it casually, Blake completely froze, her hand inches away from one red berry for a few seconds before her golden eyes looked up, searching for Sun’s.

“How do you know that?” she asked carefully.

Weiss frowned, glancing up at Blake, but the faunus had her entire focus on Sun, who didn’t seem to notice at all.

“Well, the last news I had from you was that you were with him, and after three years without hearing from you, I decided I would check for myself, but once I got there, you were already gone.”

Again, the monkey faunus threw a few berries in the air and tried to catch them all, only missing one.

“He seemed very upset,” Sun continued, furrowing his brows. “I didn’t talk to anyone, I just stalked from the trees. It looked like he wanted to find you himself. Looked very intense.”

He shrugged, munching on another berry, but Weiss noticed how Blake literally blanched. Her golden eyes went to the ground, her breathing just a little bit faster, and when she looked up at Sun, Weiss noticed it in her eyes. Something she had seen far too many times in the mirror.

Fear.

“When?” Blake asked, her voice tight.

It was only then that Sun seemed to realise how serious she was, and his tail stilled, his smile vanishing.

“Hum, a couple of days ago, maybe weeks, I don’t know. When I knew you weren’t there, I went straight back home, but I found you, instead.”

As Blake seemed to think about his words, the monkey faunus perked, a large smile on his face.

“You should come with me! Your parents have been worried sick about where you were-”

“I can’t,” Blake interrupted. “I have to stay with Weiss, for now.”

“I never asked that of you, Blake.”

“Really? Why?”

Sun and Weiss had spoken at the same time and the feline faunus blinked once.

“I know I don’t have to, but I want to,” she answered to Weiss. “I told you. I hate being in someone’s debt.”

The monkey faunus snorted, rolling his eyes comically.

“You and your weird sense of duty,” he grumbled. “What did you do?”

Weiss raised her eyebrows, glancing at Blake before returning her attention to the man.

“I helped her get out of a very frustrating situation,” she answered professionally.

“She saved me,” Blake said, and Sun nodded at that.

“Oh, I see. So I guess we won’t see you for a bit again, right?”

The monkey faunus smiled but he seemed sad, his shoulders slouching a little as he searched the nearly empty bush.

“Sun,” Blake softly called.

But he kept searching, only humming questioningly, and she had to lean over, grabbing his arm for him to stop, but he kept his eyes down, his smile nowhere to be seen.

“Sun,” she called again, her voice as soft as before.

It was only now that he looked up, locking his eyes with Blake. At that moment, it felt like they were alone in the universe.

“I will be back. I promise.”

Sun kept all of his attention on Blake, and it was after a moment of silence that Weiss cleared her throat loudly, making both of them jump slightly.

“I’m still here,” she deadpanned, raising her eyebrows at Blake, who was bending over her to reach Sun. “I can leave you two alone if you want.”

 

**** 

 

“I can’t believe they said ‘yes’,” Weiss grumbled under her breath, filling her gourd at a nearby stream.

She sat, sighing heavily, looking around as she took a sip at her gourd, before filling it again. When it was full she closed it and set it beside her, not wanting to go back to… whatever they were doing. Closing her eyes, she laid down on her back with a sigh, crossing her hands under her head, and she listened to the forest.

She woke up with a start when something wet and cold touched her cheek, opening her eyes wide to see Blake’s large head pull away slightly, the faunus in her beast form, and she realised that it was her nose that touched her. Laying back down as she held a hand above her heart, she closed her eyes, waiting for her heart to slow its crazy beating.

“So, you had fun?” she asked after a moment, opening her eyes to stare at the red ceiling the leaves were making.

She saw in the corner of her eyes the large head tilt to the side as she sat, and Blake changed form, her head in the same position.

“You sound upset.”

“Well, when I have to go away for you to have sex with a monkey, I have the right to sound upset,” Weiss retorted, feeling the familiar wave of heat irritation would always bring.

Blake huffed, nodding once as she grimaced slightly but she said nothing, only bringing her knees up to her chest and looping her arms around, keeping her gaze forward as she sat beside Weiss silently. The silence stretched, and Weiss felt her irritation slowly fade away, replaced by a feeling of peace. And curiosity.

“So…” the smaller woman started, returning her hands under her head as Blake turned her head towards her. “Sun is your boyfriend, I take it?”

The faunus grimaced deeply, snorting.

“Ew, no,” she chuckled. “Just a good friend.”

Weiss frowned, staring at Blake.

“You have sex with all your good friends?”

The faunus laughed, shifting in her seat to better look at the smaller woman.

“I don’t think sex is the same for faunus than it is for humans,” she started. “Sex isn’t representative of one’s feelings. It’s just another way to show one cares.”

She shrugged, furrowing her eyebrows.

“It’s another way to be close to someone,” she continued. “The commonplace of nudity tends to do that, I guess. But of course, it’s different when you’re with someone significant to you. It’s entirely different.”

Blake breathed the last words, her chin resting on her kneecaps as her eyes stared at nothing, distant as Weiss hummed, returning her attention on the leaves above her head. She let a few heartbeats pass before clearing her throat quietly, seemingly bringing the faunus back from her memories.

“Where’s Sun?” she asked quietly.

“He left,” Blake sighed as she brought her arms back, leaning on her hands. “He said he ‘overstayed his welcome’.”

The faunus smiled, gently shaking her head.

“He says ‘hi’,” she added, glancing at Weiss. “He said it was nice meeting you.”

Weiss rolled her eyes.

“Besides our obvious love for strawberries, I don’t see what other things would bring me to like him.”

She heard Blake chuckle beside her as she narrowed her eyes at the leaves, thinking.

“He is very… defined.”

“Defined?”

The clueless accents in her voice made the corner of her lips twitch up, but she was still thinking.

“I meant his musculature.”

“Oh. Yes, I guess he is.” Blake nodded, furrowing her brows.

Then, golden eyes darted towards her, filled with mischief.

“You’re quite defined as well, Weiss.”

The smaller woman rolled her eyes, shifting a little.

“I noticed he doesn’t have a single scar.”

Blake nodded, humming.

“Yes, he doesn’t like to fight. Well, he does, but not real ones.”

It was Weiss’s turn to hum, this time, and a silence fell on them for a moment. When Blake decided to lie down beside her, Weiss wondered if she really wanted to ask what she wanted to ask.

“Adam,” Weiss let out quietly after a while, and when Blake’s head almost snapped towards her, she had her answer. “You’re afraid of him.”

She felt the faunus stare at her for a long moment, but she kept her eyes forward, only turning her head to look at Blake when she saw her open her mouth to say something and closing it without a single sound. The faunus quickly ran her tongue over her lips, swallowing, and tried it again.

“Adam is, um… Not a good man.” She quietly let out. “His time among the humans has changed him deeply.”

“Why do you think he wants to find you?”

Blake grimaced again, turning her head away.

“I guess it’s because I didn’t say goodbye when I left.”

Then, after a second;

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Weiss nodded, sighing quietly.

“That’s alright. But I just want to know one thing: Is he dangerous?”

“Very. He’s not nicknamed ‘The mad Bull’ for nothing.”

 

**** 

 

_Panting, she closed her eyes, letting herself be submerged by the feeling of hot lips closing around her nipple, a wet tongue swirling around as the pad of a thumb made the same swirling around her clit, making her legs shake on each side of the other woman’s hips. When teeth grazed at her sensitive skin, sucking hard on the nipple, a helpless moan escaped her lips, making the woman chuckle against her skin._

_“You like it don’t you, Weiss?” she asked, looking up for her clear, sky-blue eyes to meet Weiss’s pale-blue. “You like when I mark you.”_

_“I-”_

_“Mm, we’re going to be out of time,” the woman murmured again against her breast, her skin so dark against Weiss’s alabaster one._

_“No! Please don’t stop, please-”_

_“I like you begging,” she quietly let out, looking up at her with half lidded eyes, thrusting her fingers at a faster pace._

_Grabbing her arm to make sure she wouldn’t go anywhere, Weiss moaned again, throwing her head back, her hips moving in synch with the woman, meeting each thrust so it would go deeper. As the woman leaned down, kissing the side of her neck with her teeth grazing ever so slightly, Weiss clutched at the woman’s back, trying to find purchase as she felt herself being pushed again and again, always closer to the edge. She could feel herself tightening around the woman’s fingers, her breathing ragged now, and she hid her face in the woman’s shoulder, trying to muffle her incriminating moan as she felt the woman pant in her ear._

_“I want you to say it,” she said, her lips brushing against her ear. “Say you love me, Weiss.”_

_Sinking her nails in the woman’s skin, her back arching as her toes curled, she couldn’t help herself about being a little loud when she complied._

_“I love you! I love you, Ciel!”_

She woke up, a very loud moan just shy her lips but when she recognised the dark forest around her she gritted her teeth, trying to be as silent as she could when a quiet groan escaped her, her body faintly convulsing, her heart ramming against her ribcage. After a moment, she calmed down, and brushed a few strands of hair from her face, sighing.

“Goddammit,” she quietly let out, closing her eyes as she rolled on her back.

Taking in a deep breath, she smelled the nearby mud, remembering that they had decided to stop right beside a small lake for Weiss could wash her clothes the day after, and she quickly got out of her bedroll, making her way to the lake.

“You had fun?” she heard Blake say behind her, and she could hear the smug smile in her voice.

“Shut up,” Weiss managed to snap back, feeling her cheeks burning in embarrassment.

The faunus laughed behind her but she didn’t care. Quickly, she got out of her trousers, then her shirt was pulled off, and without giving enough time for the faunus to say something about the fact that she just stripped naked in front of her, Weiss dived in the cold water. The sudden change of temperature made her stop for a second, but it reorganised her mind, returning memories at their places, and making sure to lock it behind.

When she came back to the surface, her thoughts were neatly organised, her mind clear and functional, and after a glance at the big, shattered moon in the sky, she started making her way back slowly. When she got closer, she noticed that Blake was sitting on the tiny beach, and that the faunus had gathered her discarded clothes. Waiting for her.

When she felt her feet touching the sand under her, she walked slowly, helped with her arms, and for a second both women stared at each other, waiting for the other to say something.

“I don’t need your jokes and your comments right now,” Weiss finally said, staying in the water up to her shoulders. “Also, I would like for you to turn back while I got out.”

“Seriously?” Blake raised a single eyebrow. “I’ve already seen you, Weiss.”

“Blake,” the smaller woman called, her voice so tired now. “I mean it.”

The faunus sighed, rolling her eyes, but she still shifted, turning away from her with a quiet ‘fine’. Weiss then made her way out of the water, walking past her clothes to fetch the blanket of her bedroll, then went back to sit beside the faunus, covering her back as she dried.

“It’s okay, you can turn around.”

When Blake did, both of them stayed silent for a moment, and Blake pulled her legs up, looping her arms around them.

“I uh, I noticed you were thrashing in your bed, so I wanted to wake you up because I thought you were having a nightmare but then you started making noises, and… I told myself I’d let you have this.”

“How considerate of you,” the smaller woman let out, sarcasm dripping from her voice as her cheeks started burning again.

“I know,” the faunus nodded, a small smile tugging on her lips. “I’m so kind.”

Weiss sighed, running a hand through her hair before rubbing her face, trying to make her blush disappear. Blake stayed silent for a while, giving Weiss time to come back from her embarrassment, and she shifted a little, the smaller woman noticing right away.

“Is Ciel the person you cared about?” she asked quietly.

Weiss’s hands balled into fists and her shoulders tensed, but before she could say anything, the faunus spoke again.

“You kept saying that name, so I figured…”

She shrugged, but said nothing else, and Weiss was so thankful for that. It gave her time to organise what she would say, since it was out.

“Yes,” she finally sighed, noticing how Blake looked at her right away. “She’s the person I cared about.”

She took a deep breath before exhaling slowly, keeping her eyes on the reflection of the shattered moon on the stillness of the lake.

“I didn’t kill her, but it’s as if it was me who held the sword.”

“What happened?” Blake softly asked.

As the faunus looked at her, she had that feeling again, as if the woman beside her was a thousand miles away from here, and she carefully brushed the back of her hand on her arm, making Weiss blink twice as she seemed to register the question.

“It’s a long story,” she finally let out, clutching the blanket around her.

Blake stared at her for a few seconds before glancing around, standing and starting to Weiss’s backpack, which made the smaller woman furrow her eyebrows when she saw the faunus rummaging through it, and she brought back Weiss’s gourd and the small pouch of nuts and berries, setting them beside the smaller woman as she sat back down.

“I’ve got all the time in the world.”

Pale-blue eyes looked down at what Blake had brought back, before hesitantly looking up, seeing the faunus’s reassuring, encouraging smile, and she bit her lip for a moment, pondering about what to do.

“Okay,” she finally murmured. “Okay. I’ve got all the time in the world, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so very sorry about the short sex scene. Smut isn't really my thing, but i wanted to go out of my comfort zone a little, so yeah. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

“Okay, just a second,” Blake said as she furrowed her eyebrows. “Let me get everything in order.”

Weiss nodded, pulling a little more on the blanket to protect her from the fresh breeze as Blake shifted, narrowing her eyes.

“So you are the daughter of the King of Atlas, therefore you’re the princess, the _heir_ , no less. Ciel was one of your personal maids, and she got executed… because of you.”

The smaller woman seemed to deflate a little, but still nodded, and Blake nodded too, humming.

“Okay, I got everything. Go on.”

“As I was saying, Ciel was one of my maids. She was also my… Bed buddy, to put it simply.”

“So, you two were having sex, but no feelings attached, right?”

“At first, yes. I had noticed the way she would look at me in the hallways, and she was… fairly attractive. One day I kind of cornered her, and I was very blunt about what I wanted. I wanted her in my bed.”

The faunus hummed, nodding shortly with a small, lopsided smile.

“Impressive.”

“I could do without your comments, Blake, thank you.” Weiss sighed, rubbing her temple with her index and middle finger.

“Right, sorry. I’m an avid listener. You may go on.” The faunus bowed slightly, brushing a hand in the air in front of her, making Weiss roll her eyes.

The smaller woman sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose for a second before her head jerked back, looking up at the moon with a long exhale.

“I didn’t think this through at all,” she murmured. “To me, it was a simple proposition, that she could take or not. But to her, it wasn’t that simple. If she turned me down, maybe I would have retaliated in firing her, sending her on the street or the nearest brothel.”

She swallowed, pausing for a second.

“She came, that night. She took my offer. I was glad, back then. I realised I didn’t really gave her a choice.”

She cleared her throat, straightening her head as she chewed on her lip.

“It was awkward, at first. I thought she was attractive, but that was it. And she was my first. I didn’t know what I was doing, and so did she. She learned, rather quickly I must say, what I liked, what to say, what to do. I learned it too, what she liked, and every… every gasps and moans felt like a fucking victory to me. That woman was as quiet as a mouse.”

Blake raised her eyebrows at the curse but didn’t say anything as Weiss chuckled, a small smile on her lips.

“She seemed to always be on a tight schedule,” she remembered, her eyes fixated on the reflection on the water. “Sometimes, she would leave me when I was still close, saying that we ran out of time. We learned, after a few incidents like these, to be quicker.”

“There were no feelings at first, but I guess that after a year of learning someone’s body, and I mean _really_ learning because that’s the only thing we had, I guess I started to care about her. She would come to me every night or so, and during the day… I started looking out for her. She told me once that she liked to keep company of the horses we had, and I chose her to come with me whenever I went to the stables. I knew she liked the kitchens, and I would sent her there whenever was possible without raising suspicion. She had troubles with one of the other staff members, and I took care of it.”

Weiss exhaled slowly, her breath trembling slightly, her eyes still lost and still.

“It wasn’t love, I knew that. But she learned. And she learned really well. She learned what to say, what to make me say to make me believe, just for the night, that I was loved as much as I should be. As much as anyone should be.”

“She knew about my scars. She held me as some of them were healing; she had kissed every single one of them. But she couldn’t get one thing, even if I kept saying it over and over again. She thought I was ashamed of them. But I’m not. I’m proud of them, because they mean that even through all that, I stayed true to who I was. To who I am. I don’t like them because it’s hideous to look at.”

“I got punished for everything I did that was out of the perfect mold I was expected to be in. I was supposed to be perfect. Never a word out of place. I was the heir, for crying out loud, I had to be a certain way. But instead of a dance master, I took a sword master. I learned to duel instead of duos, I learned how to ride a horse instead of traveling in the stagecoach. And the most important thing I had to remember was, apparently, I had to be straight.”

She frowned deeply, taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly, and the faunus shifted, her eyes never leaving Weiss.

“I was the heir,” the smaller woman let out quietly. “I had to take a husband and produce heirs. That was my duty as heiress of the throne, that was what my father expected of me. But I like women.”

Weiss’s voice broke and she cleared her throat quietly, trying to give back a little power to her voice.

“Winter, my older sister, was sent to Mistral as a peace offering to the king when I was very young. At the time, both our kingdoms were at war, a long, bloody one, but Atlas lost. To keep both our kingdom in relative peace, the king of Atlas had to send his eldest child to the king of Mistral, King Lionheart, to be his personal squire. And so, I was burdened by the weight of our father’s expectations. Winter and I, we wrote often ever since she left, and we even went a few times to visit, and… I got sloppy. I-I told Winter, in a couple of my letters, about Ciel, and… I hadn’t had the time to give it to the courier, and I was already late for a meeting with Father, so I asked Whitley, my little brother, to deliver it for me.”

“Whitley, at the time the war ended between Atlas and Mistral, was just a baby, he never knew Winter. But Father had seen to it that he despised her, saying she was brainwashed and the likes. And so, when I… decided to trust my little brother with something so casual, I didn’t really gave it much thought. But, upon seeing to whom it was addressed to, the little prick opened it. He read it, read it all, and after he did, he barged in the King’s council chamber with the letter in hand.”

When Weiss’s voice started trembling for good, Blake reached out, carefully taking the smaller hand in hers and gave it a little squeeze, and the smaller woman sniffed quietly, a deep wrinkle appearing between her snow white eyebrows.

“He’s fifteen,” she softly breathed. “Fifteen. The look of… complete disgust on his face when he looked at me as he made his way to Father with the letter. I tried to get the letter back, but father had asked the guards to hold me back. He read it. He knew about Ciel and I. So he sent guards to fetch her as I was dragged outside, in the courtyard. I was tied on the pillory as they dragged her in the mud, and a crowd was forming. I couldn’t stop saying how sorry I was. Father thought I was trying to get away with simple excuses, but I was talking to Ciel. She was panicked. When she saw me, stuck and exposed like this, I think she understood what was happening. She was so much braver than me,” she murmured.

“She calmed down, and she kept looking right in front of her. Not at the crowd, not at the king, not even at me. She knew she was going to be executed even before Father said it. And he made me watch. Whitley seemed only eager to stay and watch. It was all my fault, I should have known…”

“Then, I had to be punished. As I had to look at Ciel’s lifeless body, Father flogged me in front of everyone. But this time, he used the one with the flat leather tips, and did it over my clothes, so it-”

“Wait.”

Weiss stumbled on her words as Blake stared at her wide-eyed, her ears jerked back.

“You mean to tell me your _father_ did that to you?” she asked, her voice small and quiet.

The smaller woman chewed on her lip, but she nodded silently, very shortly, still not sure about giving out that information.

It had slipped from her mouth, in fact.

Blake closed her eyes for a few seconds, taking in a sharp inhale as she lifted Weiss’s hand to her mouth, pressing a kiss on her fingers, then leaning her forehead against it for a moment, effectively hiding her face. As the silence grew longer, Weiss brushed her thumb against Blake’s finger.

“Blake-”

“I’m going to hug you once you’re finished with your story. Okay?” the faunus asked without lifting up her head. “I don’t know about you, but I need it.”

It took a few heartbeats to pass before Weiss answered.

“Okay,” she croaked.

“Okay,” Blake nodded, taking in a sharp inhale as she brought Weiss’s hand down to her lap, still holding it tightly. “Go on.”

It took a couple of seconds for Weiss to remember where she was in her story, but still, she continued.

“After my punishment, I was sent back to my room. I cried for… I don’t even know how long. The only thing I know is that the day after, I challenged my father to a duel.”

“I had quite a reputation for dueling. I did it quite often, and every time, I showed mercy. I guess Father thought I would show mercy for this one, too.”

The faunus thumbed Weiss’s knuckles gently and the smaller woman took in a sharp breath, lowering her gaze to their hands.

“Then I left, before anyone could find my dead father. I got a lift from a merchant who was leaving the kingdom, and I decided to detour from Mistral by passing through Vale because I thought nobody would try to find me here. And then I stumbled upon you. And with the wanted poster, I also know the bounty was set up by the new king of Atlas.”

“Whitley.” Blake guessed with a deep sigh.

Weiss confirmed it with a nod, her eyes still on their hands, and after rubbing her face for an extended time, Blake pulled on the smaller woman’s hand gently, opening her arms.

“Come on,” she sighed. “I need a hug.”

“But it’s kind of awkward, I mean…”

Weiss waved at herself, naked but from the blanket around her shoulders, and then at Blake, who was technically always naked. But the faunus only shrugged, smiling a little.

“Hey, aren’t you happy you didn’t have to work for me to be naked?”

With a blush creeping up her neck, Weiss grumbled under her breath but still shifted closer, letting the faunus loop her arms around her shoulders as she leaned her head in the crook of her shoulder, feeling Blake resting her cheek on top of her head. The faunus held her close for a long while, and up in the sky, it had already started to be clearer.

“What a shit family you have,” Blake murmured in her ear.

 

**** 

 

Weiss remained strangely silent after that night, letting the days roll by as they only got closer to Mistral, and with it, to Lionheart’s castle.  The colors of the forest started to change, from red to green, and there seemed to be less and less trees as they made their way. But still, no matter what Blake did, Weiss would only nod or hum, her mood only growing gloomier as they neared her destination.

They found themselves in a prairie, the grass so tall that it almost reached Weiss’s shoulders, filled with flowers, and Weiss seemed to stop at every one of them, taking the time to look at their colors, to smell their perfume. One time, while Blake was away for a hunt, the faunus came back with all the flowers she came across with, making a big bouquet and decorating it with a few plants she thought would look good, and she brought it back, offering it to the smaller woman with a large smile.

“What is this?” Weiss asked, confused.

“It’s for you,” Blake said, turning the bouquet in her hands to look at it. “I noticed you kept smelling the flowers, and so I thought about making you a bouquet.”

Snow-white eyebrows shot up in surprise as her pale-blue eyes looked down at the bouquet, a soft smile on her lips.

“Thank you,” she softly let out. “That’s very kind of you.”

Blake perked up, happy to finally see her smile, but she didn’t reach to take it, and the faunus lowered the flowers, looking at them again.

“You don’t like them?” she asked, feeling her shoulders slouching.

Instantly Weiss widened her eyes, bringing her hands in front of her.

“No! It’s very lovely, I like it! It’s just… You should wash your hands.”

“What? Why?”

“That’s some ragweed right there.”

 

**** 

 

Weiss was filling her gourd at a stream, glancing around, admiring the peaceful and straight-out-of-a-fairy-tail-book the scenery was, with King Lionheart’s castle far in the back, plains and prairies boarding it to the tall, stoned walls surrounding the city. A dragonfly flew by, buzzing loudly right beside her head, and she sighed dreamingly as she saw butterflies passing from a flower to the other.

She closed her eyes, listening to the quiet splashes of the water, the shrills of the cicadas, the chirping of the birds in the nearby trees, the breeze softly making the leaves rustle and the grass whisper. With the sun warming her skin, she could just stay there, enjoying this moment until the end of the world, until she heard a noise. It was kind of out of place, low and deep, and very familiar.

Blake.

She opened her eyes, blinking as she searched where the faunus was, and she saw the large panther, waiting, at the foot of a tree just near the treeline. Furrowing her eyebrows, Weiss stood, gathering her things, and started to meet Blake, smiling when the panther closed its eyes slowly at her.

“Hi,” Weiss smiled, reaching a hand to scratch the spot between the eyes. “You wanted to show me something?”

The faunus exhaled, nuzzling the inside of her wrist for a second before turning away, and making her way further past the treeline. But she kept herself low, in her ‘stealth mode’ as Weiss called it, and so the smaller woman did the same, following as silently as she could. Blake quickly led them to a clearance, and the faunus stopped behind a bush, lowering herself to a halt, waiting for Weiss to kneel beside her. The smaller woman frowned, glancing around before staring at Blake, waiting for an explanation, but the large head looked forward, past the bushes, and so Weiss silently pushed a few branches aside, looking through it, and she quietly gasped.

In front of them was another part of the clearance that led straight to the plains, and there was a small horde of horses, a few mares and their foals eating peacefully, their tails flogging their sides to get rid of the flies that annoyed them. In silent gratitude, Weiss rested a hand on Blake, keeping her attention on the animals in front of her, but they had to move after a moment because the stallion had smelled Blake’s scent and was growing nervous.

As they made their way back to the stream, Weiss had a smile on her lips, her head filled with memories.

“I liked spending my days in the stables, taking care of the horses,” she was telling the faunus, who looked up as they walked through the tall grass. “My favorite was this really beautiful mare, her name was Faience because she always looked so… majestic but at the same time fragile, you see? She was really petite but she was perfect for me. She was this gorgeous dark bay, and she would be a little dappled in the summer, and she was so kind and patient and…”

Weiss gushed about horses for a really long time, telling stories and anecdotes, but she had a large smile all the while, laughing at her own stories as she remembered them. Blake would only listened, at some point changing form to walk side by side and laugh with her, asking questions about this and that and Weiss answering with great details, making sure the faunus understood everything.

“I miss the horses,” the smaller woman sighed, the remnant of a smile still on her lips. “The only moment I felt happy was with them.”

“So I understand,” Blake smiled.

“What do you like?” Weiss asked, looking up at Blake, her eyes so blue when the sun caught in it. “I mean, except harassing me and hunting.”

The faunus snorted loudly, sliding her hand through the tall grass and letting it tickle her palm.

“The list just went that much shorter.”

“Oh, come on,” the smaller woman rolled her eyes. “There must be something you like. Or maybe something you liked to do? When you were younger?”

Blake hummed then, nodding.

“My mom used to take me to this cascade near the village, when I was just a cub,” the faunus started, ignoring the way Weiss’s face lit up at the mention of ‘cub’. “There were plenty of fish and the water was always so warm. I used to jump from rock to rock to get across. It’s where I met Sun,” she added, a large smile pulling her lips. “He fell down a tree. Nearly drowned in the stream, but I helped him out. He’s been my best friend ever since.”

She chuckled, closing her hand to catch a few strands of grass before pulling on it, running her thumb through the short blades.

“It’s a shame, though. It’s been years since I last went there,” Blake quietly mused, frowning a little.

“Then you should go there next time you can,” Weiss proposed softly.

The faunus looked up, her eyes locking with Weiss’s for a moment.

“Yeah. I’ll do that.”

 

**** 

 

“Here we are,” Weiss sighed, craning her neck to try and see the top of the stoned wall. “Lionheart’s castle.”

“I’ve been wondering about this, but… What happens with the wanted poster? You told me people would be looking for you. This place is full of people.”

The smaller woman looked over at Blake, who only frowned at the top of the wall, her expression dark.

“The bounty on someone’s head only works within the kingdom it came from,” Weiss explained. “So I’m only wanted in Atlas.”

“But what if someone recognise you and bring you back there?” the faunus asked, still unsure.

“You just said it,” the smaller woman said, a dark glint in her eyes. “They’ll have to bring me back. That, of course, if they _can_ get a hold of me in the first place.”

Still, Blake didn’t look convince at all, and only balled her hands into fists.

“I should go with you.”

She affirmed it with confidence, like it wasn’t even a proposition, and Weiss set a hand on her arm, catching her attention.

“First of all, no, that’s a really bad idea. Second of all, think. You’ll have to _actually_ wear clothes.”

Blake grimaced at that, making the smaller woman chuckle.

“It’s going to be fine, Blake,” she said, patting her arm. “I’ll ask my sister for safe haven. The last news I had from her, she’s now the King’s personal guard, so she’s kind of high in the chain of command.”

The faunus hummed, nodding. She looked down, seeing in Weiss’s eyes the bright light of hope, and the dreadful feeling that was heaving her chest lifted a little. She answered the smaller woman’s smile with one of her own, and gently set a hand on top of Weiss’s.

“So I guess this is goodbye,” she softly let out, feeling her heart squeeze a little.

The smaller woman nodded, her eyes falling to the soft touch Blake was offering, and she squeezed the faunus’s arm gently.

“Yeah,” she breathed. “I have to say, I’m going to miss you.”

After a second of hesitation, Blake pulled the smaller woman into her arms for a hug, holding her close as she felt her ears drop on her head.

“I’m going to miss you too,” she whispered into alabaster hair. “If you ever need me, just try screaming my name in the woods. If I’m nearby, I’ll come to you. Always.”

She felt Weiss hug her back, then, with so much force that it surprised her, but she didn’t say anything, only nuzzling the smaller woman’s hair. After a moment, they pulled away, holding hands as Weiss gave a short squeeze before letting go.

“I’ll see you around, sometime,” the smaller woman smiled with a wave, then turned around, starting towards the open gates of the wall.

They had drifted a little to the side, because a woman traveling with a naked woman would rise a lot of questions, and a woman travelling with a giant panther would rise even more questions, and so, they decided to stay out of sight as long as possible. But as Blake watched Weiss go, turning into her beast form, the faunus couldn’t get rid of this feeling in her chest. Like something was about to go horribly wrong.

But she kept walking away, glancing over her shoulder to see where Weiss was, and it was when she passed a small cabin, with clothes hanging from a few wires, that she saw the smaller woman disappear inside the walls of the city.

 

**** 

 

It had taken her almost all day just to reach the castle, and even when she was at the foot of the stairs, a guard barked at her that she had to go away.

“I’m seeking an audience with my sister, Winter Schnee,” she demanded, trying to control herself from yelling at this impudent guard.

The man only frowned and Weiss saw something move behind him, but the guard didn’t do or say anything about it, and so Weiss had to stay there, waiting for, hopefully, good news.

It was almost an hour later that the guard barked at her again, as she was sitting on a step of the stair, and he told her to follow him as he disappeared inside the large door, and so she quickly did. She was led through a maze of hallways and ballrooms, it seemed, so much that she didn’t even remembered the way back, until the guard stopped beside a large and massive wooden door, motioning for her to go in.

Hesitantly, Weiss pushed the door, pocking her head inside, and an instant wave of relief washed over her as she recognised the white head that was lowered, reading something.

“Winter!” Weiss called, stepping inside the room.

The older woman looked up, her eyebrows raised so high on her forehead that it almost reached her hairline, and she quickly stood from her chair.

“Weiss,” she whispered, blinking. “I can’t believe you’re here.”

“Me too,” the younger sister admitted, wringing her hands together. “I had a long journey-”

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Weiss blinked, taken aback. Of course, she didn’t think her sister would welcome her with arms wide open, but she didn’t expect her barking to her.

“I-I’m seeking a safe haven-” Weiss started.

“Safe haven?” the older sister repeated, slamming her hand on her desk. “Who do you think you are?” Winter had growled these words, finally coming back from her surprise from seeing her sister. “You killed a king, Weiss. You killed our _father_.”

“I had my reasons!” Weiss retorted, coming back from her surprise.

It was only now that the smaller woman noticed what Winter was reading, when she entered the room. Weiss’s wanted poster.

“Even so,” the oldest coolly said, straightening her back as she seemed to come back from her sudden burst of anger. “You won’t find a safe haven here. Guards!”

Instantly, Weiss’s hand closed on the hilt of her rapier, but before she could unsheathe it, three guards came through the door, one of them knocking her head with a heavy gauntlet just enough so she was dizzy, giving them enough time to get a hold of her.

“I’m going to leave you in the dungeon for the night, and tomorrow, you’ll go back to Atlas to meet your fate, _Kingslayer_.”

Winter had stepped from behind her desk and was now towering her little sister, her features hard as Weiss blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision.

“Do you even know what he did?” Weiss asked quietly, finally able to focus on her sister.

The older woman had the grace to look compassionate.

“I heard about Ciel. I’m sorry.” Then, she looked up at the guards. “Take her.”

“I wasn’t talking about that,” the smaller woman snarled, a dark shadow in her eyes as she struggled. “I was talking about what he did to me!”

Weiss couldn’t believe it when her sister, her _confidant_ , rolled her eyes, shifting impatiently.

“If you’re talking about Father’s punishments-”

“He flogged me on a regular basis!” Weiss shouted, feeling her face burning in anger. “I told you so many times and you did _nothing_!”

The older woman only raised a single eyebrow, a slight twitch in the corner of her lips, but she looked at the guards and nodded, the two men dragging Weiss out in the hallway as she thrashed and screamed.

“He did the best he could with you,” Weiss heard her sister reply. “Look how it turned out.”

 

**** 

 

She was roughly pushed inside a tiny cell, stumbling upon entering, and she had just the time to turn back before the door closed with a loud clank, but she still took her chance as she saw the guard fumbling with the key and crashed against the metallic bars, trying to get it open. The guard pulled away with the key just after he successfully locked it, leaving Weiss desperately grasping the bars, shaking it as hard as she could, but it only made the man with the keys smile, twirling the ring of keys around his finger.

“So much for a Kingslayer,” he huffed.

But he nearly dropped his keys when Weiss passed her arm through the bars and tried to grab him, her fingers brushing only a few inches away.

“Say that to me when I have my sword in hand,” she hissed. “And I’ll show you what a Kingslayer looks like.”

The man blanched and quickly turned away, stepping out of the small hallway where a few cells were, lit by a single torch that was conveniently settled right in front of her cell. Leaning her forehead against the cold, metal bars, the only thing she could think was just the same words, over and over again.

 _I have to get out of here_.

Opening her eyes, she shook the bars again with renewed energy, making it clanking loudly, but it was still as sturdy as it was. She looked over the hinges, searching for a single weakness, but she didn’t see any. Leaving the door, she looked over her cell. A small pile of straw in one corner, and that was it for the ground. The walls. The walls were dank when she touched it, cold and humid, and she knew that she was going to freeze if she slept right on the floor. She went to the pile of straw, and as she moved it with her foot, the smell it let out almost made her gag.

She spotted a small opening in the far wall, up, so she had to jump and grab the edge, then pull herself up if she wanted to see outside. Panting as she did, trying to hold herself up by bracing her arm on the edge, her breath raised a cloud of dust that made her cough, and she had to let go to take her breath back.

“Shit,” Weiss mumbled under her breath, leaning her back against the wall as she rested her hands on her hips, catching her breath.

She shivered when the cold went right through her clothes, but it gave her enough kick to want to jump again, but as she did, her foot slipped, and as she fell her left forearm scratched against the spiky rocks, making her hiss in pain.

“Shit!” she cursed again, kicking the wall.

She leaned her forehead against the wall as she grit her teeth, remembering that her backpack with all the herbs had been taken from her, along with her rapier and knife. But she pushed herself from the wall, quickly ripping the end of her shirt, then wrapped it around her arm, grimacing when she pulled to make the knot as it brought a pang of pain.

Nursing her injured arm, she tried to look around, outside her cell, but all she could see was the stoned walls, and for the moment, she gave up, leaning her back against the wall in a corner next to the bars and slowly lowering herself, her legs pulled up to her chest as she rested her forehead on her kneecaps.

She couldn’t believe she was deceived by her family again.

She should have stayed with Blake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo.... Yeah. Sorry.


	5. Chapter 5

Grunting, she shifted, her limbs numb from the cold and stiff from the cramped position as she was curled into a ball, trying to keep warm even though everywhere she touched, the cold of the stone would only seep through her clothes. She let out a trembling sigh, her teeth clacking together as she rubbed her arms, the friction bringing little heat against her ice-cold fingers.

She had saw, from the ‘window’ on the far wall, that the sun had set for a while now, and it only grew colder and colder as the hours passed. The scratch on her arm had stopped bleeding, and stopped itching too, but she was just probably too cold to feel it anymore.

She should get up, jump around, try to keep herself warm.

But she didn’t have an ounce of energy to do that.

She closed her eyes, hoping that if she fell asleep, she couldn’t feel as cold as she was right now.

She figured she had slept, because when there was a sudden thud near her ear, she nearly jumped out of her skin, only to realise she was in complete darkness. A quick glance to the window assured her she had her eyes wide open, for she could see the moon and stars, but beside the very faint ray the moon offered inside her cell, she couldn’t see past her nose. When she heard footsteps, quiet, then the creaking of a key in the lock, she stepped back, keeping a hand against the wall to not fall back.

She could feel her heart hammering against her ribcage when she heard the door opening, a million scenarios crossing her mind as panic settled for good, and when her back hit the far wall, her breath caught in her throat.

“Who’s there?” she asked, her voice shaking and very not as assured as she wanted it to be.

She heard footsteps again, and something metallic scratching stone as she could discern a very faint silhouette, and when they turned around, two glowing, golden irises were staring at her.

“Blake?” she asked, a lump the size of her fist stuck in her throat as her voice trembled.

Golden eyes blinked, then the silhouette dropped what it was holding to step forward and pull the smaller woman into a hug, and Weiss immediately recognized the smell of the forest.

“You weren’t moving even after I called, I thought…” the faunus’s voice trembled, it’s familiar rumbling warming Weiss to her core.

The smaller woman hugged her back fiercely, not believing for a second that this was real.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice muffled by the faunus’s shoulder.

She could feel soft fabric against her skin. Was she really wearing clothes?

“I was worried, so I followed you to the castle. I slipped in and stayed out of sight until you met with your sister, and I was about to turn back when she sent you here.”

The faunus pulled away, cupping the smaller woman’s face gently, her hands almost scorching hot against her cold skin.

“You really have a shit family,” she added, one of her thumb brushing over Weiss’s cheek. “You’re also ice cold. Let’s get you out of here, I got your things.”

The faunus pulled away then, leaving Weiss in the dark and with nothing to hang on to, and she heard Blake’s steps stop, the door creaking slightly.

“Weiss? Are you coming?”

“Blake, I’m blind.”

“What?”

Then the door creaked again, the steps coming back closer.

“Oh right,” she heard Blake mumble under her breath. “You spent so much time with me that I thought… Humans can’t see in the dark. Got it.”

Weiss felt a large hand take hers, squeezing her fingers gently.

“Then follow me,” she heard the faunus say gently. “I’ll be your eyes.”

As they made their way out of the cell, Weiss squeezing what seemed to be her bag and her belt against her with her injured arm, Blake soon pulled Weiss’s hand to her back for her to clutch on whatever clothing she was wearing. And as they kept turning this way and that and there was absolutely no light, Weiss frowned.

“Did you extinguish every torches you saw on your way?” she asked under her breath, pressed against the faunus’s back and following her to the step.

“I’ll use every advantage I can,” Blake only answered as quietly as the smaller woman.

And as they were about to turn a corner, even Weiss could see light coming from the end of the hallway, and the faunus backtracked with a quiet curse, starting in another direction.

“Do you even know where we’re going?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah… I think. This place is a maze.”

“You-” Weiss interrupted herself, leaning her forehead against her back, taking in a deep breath.

It was true. This place was filled with hallways and ballrooms, and you needed more than one time in the place to know your way well.

“I just follow the windows,” Blake informed. “If we can see outside, it means we’re close from an exit, right?”

Weiss vigorously nodded against her back, thanking the skies for that woman. She quickly glanced towards one of the said windows, wondering if they could just jump out, but it was so narrow, maybe she could get out, but Blake wouldn’t.

She heard the faunus curse again, and she pushed Weiss against a hole of the wall, pressing her back against her again as she kept the smaller woman secured behind her, waiting for a guard to walk passed them in the dark, recognisable by the noises of their armor. But Weiss noticed light, coming from the direction the knight took, and she could feel the faunus tense against her.

Blake risked a glance over the wall, relaxing when the light slowly faded, and Weiss had the time to see that Blake was entirely clad in black, and she even had a scarf that covered half her face, but then it was black again, feeling Blake’s hand pressing her against her back.

At some point, she heard the faunus gasp and her steps went faster, but before she could try and look over, she noticed the steadily growing light behind her, coming from three hallways crossing theirs, and Blake suddenly lowered herself, on her guard.

“Shit,” the faunus cursed. “They noticed you went away and the stabbed guard.”

“And they’re coming,” Weiss added, pressing herself a little more against her back as she counted the seconds before the guards with the torches rounded the corner.

“The door’s right there!” Blake hissed, pointing a little further in front of them.

But there was light steadily growing from the large hallway right in front of it, and the faunus turned around then, locking her eyes with Weiss’s.

“What do we do?”

Her voice was tired, almost resigned, and it made Weiss’s grit her teeth.

“We’re not dying here, that’s what we do,” she retorted, quickly buckling her belt around her hips. “What do you say about we try the door?”

The faunus raised her eyebrows, but when she crossed Weiss’s eyes, a fierce glint shining in them, a slow, steady smile pulled her lips.

“It’s been a while since my last fight, but I’ve been itching for one.”

“Good. Then let’s do this.”

Giving a quick nod to the faunus, Weiss unsheathed her sword and ran up the hallway, Blake hot on her heels, but instead of going to the door, the smaller woman only followed the wall, and just before she reached the hallway, the three guards had stepped out right in front of her, and she used her momentum to kick the first one, making him fall and bringing the other two with him. Without stopping moving, Weiss quickly made it to the door, pulling on the large handle, soon followed by Blake as the three guards slowly got back to their feet. The door had opened only for a few inches before an arrow sunk right beside her hand, sending a few splinters near her face.

Turning around, squeezing the hilt of her blade in her hand, she counted the guards quickly running to them. Three in front of them, and two on each side, plus the archer in the back.

She didn’t have the time to think further because she saw the archer let go of his arrow, and out of instinct she pushed Blake to the side, the shiny triangle of the arrow sinking in the wood right where Blake’s head was just a second before, and she pulled on her knife, a dangerous feeling settling in her chest.

The three guards still seemed astonished by the sudden attack, and Weiss could see, past them, the archer reaching for another arrow, and so she tried to be as quick as she could, given the circumstances.

Throwing her knife, it flew above the three guards, but missed the archer’s throat, instead sinking in his shoulder, and Weiss had to say that it was still a job well done. Then, the three guards unsheathed their swords, acknowledging the threat in front of them.

It wasn’t Weiss’s first fight, on the contrary. But a rapier can do so much when parrying a two-handed sword, and so, when the hit came from above, she let the huge, heavy blade slide down the thin blade of her own, almost hitting the ground with full force as the man cried out, grabbing one of his shoulders. Weiss took advantage of that, dodging a blade with a step to the side and quickly knocking her hilt right on the man’s nose, breaking it, the guard falling limp instantly.

As she parried a hit, Weiss chanced a glance over her shoulder, seeing Blake was still in her human form, for the moment dodging every hit swung at her, waiting for an opening and when she saw one, turning on her heels to give her more power and driving her elbow right in the guard’s face, knocking him out cold in an instant.

The swishing sound of a blade coming her way made her look back and quickly jump back, dodging the attack, and when a blade came to the side again, she crouched, quickly slashing through the joints of the arm along the guard’s armor. He dropped his blade, shouting in pain, and before Weiss stood she did the same, slashing through the joint of the other guard behind his knee, making him fall, and she quickly knocked them out, turning towards the other two guards that stopped, hesitant.

Blake was finished with her guards too, and she stalked closer to Weiss, taking in the new opponents as the smaller woman panted. Weiss stepped forward, readying her sword and making both guards cringe, but she didn’t go farther from that. The whistle of an arrow was heard, but she didn’t have time to dodge it, and she felt it graze against her side, burning as it cut her shirt and her skin. With a yelp, the smaller woman pressed against the fresh wound, turning on her heels to look at the arched, only to find out there was another one, already shooting another arrow at her.

She saw Blake change form in the corner of her eye. Saw the perplex look from the archers and the guards turn to horror when the oversized panther jumped on them. And she also saw the arrow sink in the soft skin of her stomach, her white shirt already stained red.

She saw Blake jump on the guards after dealing with the archers as she reeled, trying to remember how to breathe, and the large beast came back, using its powerful legs to push open the door, and Blake turning again to carry her outside.

All she could hear was Blake panting as she ran, and the only thing she could feel was the pain the movements was bringing. Weiss didn’t know how long Blake ran. She was just relieved when she stopped, delicately setting the smaller woman on the ground as she panted, trying to catch her breath.

“Weiss? Look at me, open your eyes,” the faunus asked, her voice firm.

The smaller woman obliged, blinking slowly, but then Blake pressed around the wound and Weiss grunted loudly, energised by how angry she was.

“What are you doing?” she nearly yelled, grabbing the faunus’s arm. “Don’t pull it out!”

“I have to!” She insisted, pulling away roughly. “I have to carry you, they’re gaining on us.”

As she spoke, Blake swiftly ripped the wooden arrow from Weiss’s stomach, making her curse very loudly, and the faunus quickly pressed a piece of a torn up shirt, one of the remains of her clothes after she changed, then she took her scarf to tie it in place. Weiss was already covered in sweat from the pain, and she groaned when Blake moved her, the faunus gently cupping her face, gaining her attention.

“I’m going to carry you, okay? You’ll have to hang on, for it’ll be a bumpy ride. Alright?”

Weiss nodded, blinking her eyes again to try and focus, and Blake nodded, giving a quick kiss on the smaller woman’s forehead before pulling away and changing form, glancing back towards the road.

The smaller woman noticed now that they were behind a cabin, and there was a crowd near the gates of the city, but soon a few riders were coming fast, and when she heard the insistent call Blake made, she climbed on.

But it was nothing like a horse. Right on the first few strides, Weiss had nearly been thrown off, and so she wrapped her arms around Blake’s neck, trying to hang on with her legs as best she could, and then hoped for the best. The pain from her stomach and the sudden movements riding Blake brought caused her to stay awake, seeing that they were closing in on the treeline, but as she looked back, the riders were gaining on them, fast.

When she saw three of the riders pull bows from their backs, readying arrows, Weiss turned her head back, hiding her head as best she could between her shoulders and waited. She herd the first zipped around them, and Blake started running in zigzag, but it only made the riders catch up faster. At the second wave of arrows, Weiss heard the whistling of the wind and just as they were entering with full speed the treeline, she felt a flash of pain in her back in two places, and only a weak whine escaped her lips.

She held on for dear life for as long as she could, feeling her hands grow numb and her eyelids grow heavy as the faunus ran as fast as she could, and after the faunus jumped above a fallen tree, Weiss couldn’t help but let go, and it went all black before she even hit the ground.

 

**** 

 

Suddenly off balance, Blake crashed down, rolling in the bushes before quickly standing, searching for Weiss. She saw her, laying a few feet from her, but as she got closer she noticed the two, now broken arrows planted in the smaller woman’s back, her shirt covered in blood. She changed form, quickly dropping to her knees beside Weiss, her hand hovering a few inches from the arrows, her throat tightening.

“Weiss?” she called, her voice rising in pitch.

But there was no answer. Turning her around a little by the shoulder, she noticed how pale the smaller woman was, but she could hear her breathe. Very faintly, but still breathing.

The faunus bit her lip, hard, grounding herself with the pain it brought as she cradled Weiss in her arms, and started running again.

“Hang on, Weiss,” she said, glancing down to the smaller woman, noticing that her eyelids fluttered a little at her name but didn’t open. “We’re nearly there. You just hang on.”

And she ran, as fast as she could, ignoring the burning in her legs and in her lungs, ignoring the exertion  making her breath ragged, uneven, but she didn’t care. They were close.

When she could smell the town, it was as if she had a sudden burst of energy, and she pumped her legs, going even faster.

She didn’t realise she was crying. She hadn’t noticed when she had started crying. But she didn’t care at all.

She entered the town at full speed, trying as best she could to avoid the people passing by, but they only stepped away from her, and she reached the biggest hut in record time, barging in through the cloth hanging from the doorway and effectively interrupting two person, a man and a woman, surprising them in the middle of a conversation.

“Mom,” Blake pleaded, her cheeks damp with tears and her voice cracking as she was trying to catch her breath. “Help me.”

The woman’s eyes, golden like Blake’s, dropped to her frame and to the smaller woman held closely to her chest, noticing right away the blood–soaked shirt, and indicated the nearest bed for her to set her down. And as soon as she did, Blake stepped back, giving her mother space to work, and a wave of relief washed over her as she realised she had made it, and she collapsed in her father’s arms, passed out from exhaustion.

 

****

 

She woke up slowly, trapped in a haze of pain, and a quiet groan left her lips as she shifted, feeling her face scrunching up, and she felt something move against her, so she opened her eyes.

Blake, in her beast form, was lying right beside her, and her golden eyes were staring at her with such intensity that Weiss blinked twice, before grimacing.

“Ouch,” she mumbled, closing her eyes again.

She heard Blake make a soft noise, and felt her nuzzle the side of her head as the large frame shifted closer, making a series of soft noises right in Weiss’s ear.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying, but I’m fine,” the smaller woman sighed, keeping her eyes closed.

She felt the large head rub against her face and Weiss grunted, spitting fur as soon as the faunus pulled away, but when Blake nestled her head right under her chin with a long, soft whine, the smaller woman sighed, reaching a hand up to scratch behind one ear as she leaned her cheek against the large head.

It didn’t take long for her to fall back into slumber.

 

**** 

 

When Weiss woke up again, she was cold, realising quickly that Blake wasn’t with her, and as she glanced around, not recognising anything, a spike of anxiety made her sit up, thinking that she might have been kidnapped as she slept or something. The pain it caused her when she moved made her pause with a grunt, and it was only now that she noticed a woman, sitting in the back, who raised her head at the sound, settling her golden eyes on her, one of her pointed ears flicking, on top of her head.

She had earrings. And also, she looked a lot like Blake.

“Don’t sit up yet,” the woman hurriedly closed her book, settling it on the table before making her way to her. “You have to rest.”

As the woman set a gentle hand on her shoulder, Weiss slightly cringed, but still laid back, her eyes scanning the woman. The older faunus smiled when she noticed, and she pulled a chair beside the bed.

“I’m Kali,” she gently let out. “Blake’s mother.”

The smaller woman hummed, nodding a little, her eyes still scanning the woman’s features.

“She has your smile,” Weiss croaked.

The older woman smiled as the smaller woman cleared her throat, this time glancing around.

“Where is Blake?”

Kali sat back in her chair with a sigh, looking over at the cloth serving as a door as it flapped gently in the breeze.

“Outside, with her father. She has been literally guarding you for over three days, I thought giving her something to do would be good for her.”

Weiss nodded again, and her eyes falling on the book that was on the table, remembering what Blake had said to her.

“You were reading,” the smaller woman let out, almost a little accusingly, and Kali smiled again. “Blake told me faunus didn’t know how to read.”

“I know she never held humans in high esteem, even faunus who worked with humans, but I guess I’m the only exception,” the woman said gently. “I learned how to read so I could be a better healer. I can do so much only by memory. Besides, Blake loves being read to.”

Weiss huffed, a small smile pulling her lips at the thought of Blake listening to her mother as she read her a story, and her eyes finally went back to the woman, their eyes locking.

“I’m Weiss,” she finally introduced herself.

The woman slightly bowed her head, a kind smile on her lips, thanking her silently.

“I hear you are a healer too?”

The smaller woman huffed, letting her head fall back for a second, before looking down at her stomach, realising she was wearing a brown tunic, the fabric rough against her fingers when she touched it, her hand hovering on the wound of her stomach.

“Probably not as good as you,” she grimaced. “I’m more of a fighter.”

Her golden eyes fell to Weiss’s hand, who was gently rubbing against the fabric, and she nodded, humming.

“That’s what Blake told me.”

At what Weiss tensed, her eyes returning to the woman, this time suspicious.

“What did she tell you?” she asked carefully.

The woman furrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head to the side, and Weiss had to blink from the very familiar scene.

“She didn’t tell me much. She just said you got into a fight and got injured.”

Holding each other’s stare for a moment, Weiss finally relaxed, nodding, and she didn’t have the time to say anything else because Kali’s ears flicked to the side, her attention turning to the door as the cloth was pushed aside, Blake entering with an armful of wood as she was talking to a very tall man.

“I still don’t understand why humans can’t eat raw meat,” the young woman was grumbling, dropping what she was carrying near the far wall. “It’s a waste of time to cook it, and-”

As she turned around, her golden eyes glanced automatically to where Weiss was resting, and when she noticed that the smaller woman was awake, she stopped, blinking. Blake was wearing almost the same tunic as her, and Weiss had to hold back a comment about how short it was on the tall faunus.

Blake seemed to come back from her surprise and was by the smaller woman’s side in three wide strides, almost knocking her mother over as she sat on the edge of the bed.

“Hey,” she said softly, smiling, making her eyes squint a little.

Weiss huffed, but couldn’t help but smile. Even in her human form, Blake was doing that cat thing, closing her eyes slowly, and every time, she had to remind herself not to make fun of the faunus for that.

“Hi,” she said simply.

Blake looked over her for a moment, and carefully reached her hand, taking Weiss’s smaller one in hers, running a thumb over her knuckles.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’ve been better,” the smaller woman grimaced slightly. “But I’ve been worst, too.”

Blake hummed, nodding, her thumb still caressing her skin gently, and after a moment, Weiss shifted a little, a very small smile on her lips.

“That tunic is a little short on you,” the smaller woman reported, earning a single raise of eyebrow from Blake and Kali, but the younger faunus’s smile only inched larger.

“You prefer I take it off?”

Weiss rolled her eyes, squeezing her fingers.

“Of course not. I finally get to see you trapped in clothes, I want to enjoy it as much as I can.”

Blake snorted as Kali stood, gently squeezing her daughter’s shoulder before walking up to the man who was, without a doubt, Blake’s father, talking under their breath, and the younger faunus took her mother’s place on the chair, keeping Weiss’s hand in hers.

“Mom said you need to eat some meat to get all the nutrients needed for a fast recovery, so I gathered some wood for a fire, and I’m about to go hunting, so what do you want to eat?”

Golden eyes locked with pale-blue ones, eager, her ears standing tall on her head as she waited for Weiss to answer, but the smaller woman only blinked, taken aback.

“Uh… anything?”

“No, no, anything at all, I’ll get it.”

“Blake, I’m telling you. I don’t even remember the last time I ate meat; I’m not going to get picky. Take something you like.”

Her shoulders seemed to drop a little, but she still nodded, squeezing her hand.

“In the meantime, you rest. You’ll be back on your feet before you know it.”

Weiss looked up, smiling as she nodded, and when Blake left, her pale-blue eyes went down on her hand, still feeling the lingering heat of Blake’s skin. Brushing the pad of her thumb on her finger where Blake’s did, she noted how more enjoyable it was when it was the faunus how did it, and she balled her hand into a fist, closing her eyes with a sigh.

 

**** 

 

“You do realise that I am capable of sleeping on my own, right?”

Weiss’s annoyed voice was joined by a single arched eyebrow as she watched the faunus trying to find a comfortable position on the bed. Kali had moved her a couple of inches to the side, so she wouldn’t stay in the same spot for too long, but in doing so, the space on each side of her was greatly reduced, as Blake was discovering now.

“I know, but it gets cold at night.”

“Yes, that’s why there are blankets in beds. So I can pull them up over me, when I’m cold.”

She tried to lean over to pull on the blankets that were pushed down, and when she struggled, she felt Blake carefully slid an arm under her back and helping her sit, mindful to not press against the wounds there. The smaller woman finally grabbed what she wanted and leaned back, covered up to her waist for the moment as she panted slightly, but she crossed her arms as she stared at Blake, proving her point.

The faunus’s ears dropped slightly as she pinched her lips, but she only stared at her for a moment before rolling her eyes.

“Fine.”

Blake rolled over and stood, changing into her beast form before turning around on the same spot a couple of times, then laid down with a very loud, and very pitiful sigh. Upon hearing this, Weiss rolled her eyes so hard that she feared she might lose them, but she still settled, closing her eyes, knowing that sleep would come easy with her belly full, in a comfortable bed and the dark hut. But even as Blake’s breathing was deepening, the small woman frowned, shifting again.

“Actually…”

She heard movement and she opened her eyes just in time to see Blake’s head appear from the side of her bed, her ears tall and perked on her head, listening.

“Could you help me? I’m tired of being on my back. I’d like to lie on my side, but if I do it alone, I fear I’ll reopen the wounds.”

Changing form again, Blake sat at the edge of the bed, gently sliding an arm under her shoulders and carefully moved her, waiting as Weiss positioned herself with a small sigh.

“Thank you, Blake.”

“You’re welcome,” the faunus replied softly.

Weiss felt the dip in the bed go as Blake stood, and the faunus was about to change form again when the smaller woman tried to look over her shoulder.

“Actually…”

“Yes?”

“Could you stay with me?”

There was a silence and she could only imagine Blake widening her eyes, and so she quickly explained.

“It’s just that if I roll over in my sleep, I won’t be able to turn around, but if you’re there, I could just lean on you so I won’t roll around.”

She heard the faunus snort, but the bed dipped still.

“So much for the girl who says she can sleep alone.”

“Shush. It’s beneficial for the both of us.”

She heard the soft huff Blake made, but before she could slip under the blanket, Weiss stopped her.

“Ah! You have to wear something.”

“What? You’re already wearing your tunic.”

“Yes, I know. I’d like it if you could wear yours, too.”

“Fine,” the faunus sighed deeply, as if it was the most irksome demand she could have asked her.

But soon, she heard the whisper of fabric sliding against skin, and she felt Blake climb in the bed, settling behind her. The faunus slid her arm under Weiss’s head, carefully gathering Weiss’s hair and pushing it out of the way as she gently, mindfully slotted herself against the smaller woman, pausing a few times in case Weiss was opposed.

But the smaller woman only sighed contentedly when she wrapped an arm around her waist, and Blake nestled her nose right behind Weiss’s ear, her face half hidden in the ivory tresses.

“Thank you,” Weiss murmured.


	6. Chapter 6

“Weiss, hold on, you know you can’t move around that much yet!”

The smaller woman puffed angrily as she leaned back against her pillows, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I’m bored! You can’t really expect me to sit still for five days straight without complaining!”

Blake sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes tiredly. She had been tasked of watching over Weiss while her mother was gone, and she couldn’t use a hunt as an excuse to leave. But Weiss was literally on the verge of ripping her hair from her head out of boredom. That, or try to sneak out of the hut to try and find something to do. In both cases, not a good idea.

“Look, I get how you feel, but there’s not much to do, this place is only filled with book,” Blake sighed again as she glanced around from her chair. “There’s maybe some sewing that needs to be done-”

“Books,” Weiss repeated, her pale eyes glancing over a bookshelf. “I could read something.”

The faunus stood, walking to the bookshelf but then stopped, hesitating.

“I don’t know what to get you,” she confessed. “I don’t know which ones are about plants and which one with actual story.”

“Just get me anything,” the smaller woman insisted, shifting in her seat to be more comfortable.

Blake nodded, returning her attention to the books, her eyes taking in the colors and the various shapes, before picking a couple of them, randomly. After she was carrying a satisfying pile of them, she brought them back to the smaller woman, who received them excitedly.

“Thank you,” she said quickly, already looking over at the covers and the spines to know what the books were about, turning her head this way and that.

Blake sat back in the chair, silently thanking the skies for this moment of tranquility, now that Weiss had something to do. She watched her form two piles, one taller than the other.

“Your mother has a really impressive collection of medicinal plants,” Weiss murmured absentmindedly as she was paging through one of the books before closing it and setting it on top of the taller pile.

“Yes, well, she’s a healer,” the faunus shrugged. “The best I know.”

Weiss smiled shortly before humming at one of the books, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she turned it around to read what was written in the back.

“This one is a story,” she mumbled, turning it around again to open the cover. “A story about a man with two souls.”

Her snow-white eyebrows raised a little as she hummed again, turning a few pages before settling there, her eyes following the words on the pages. Blake smiled softly when she noticed the small crinkle forming between the smaller woman’s eyebrows as she focused, and she laid her head on the bed with a quiet sigh, closing her eyes. Now that Weiss had something to do, maybe she could take a little nap.

“Do you…” Weiss’s voice hesitated, and Blake looked up, blinking her eyes open to see the smaller woman chewing on her lip for a second. “Kali told me you liked being read to. Do you want me to read to you?”

The faunus raised her eyebrows, genuinely surprised at the demand, and Weiss smiled a little, glancing down at the book.

“Like that, you’ll know about what I’m rambling about,” she gently insisted.

Blake huffed, smiling.

“Okay,” she nodded.

And Weiss smiled too.

“Okay,” she said, before clearing her throat. “Here goes…”

 

**** 

 

As soon as they had a moment, the continued the story, Blake sitting beside her as she read, and the faunus seemed genuinely invested in the story and so was she. More than once, they talked about it, making theories and laughing about them, betting about the ending. And so, two days later, they were just past the middle of the book, Weiss’s voice filling the silence of the hut as it was empty but for them, and as she turned the page around, she started the top of the paragraph before trailing off, her eyes quickly reading a few lines down, her face scrunching up.

“What is it?” Blake asked, opening her eyes and straightening her head to look down at her, questioning.

“It’s, um…” Weiss started, her cheeks taking a pink tint. “There’s a sex scene. A very detailed sex scene.”

“Oh,” Blake only said, her eyebrows raised high on her forehead.

Weiss read quickly at the last of the pages before turning it, her cheeks steadily heating as she felt the faunus’s stare on her.

“Go on, then.” Blake shrugged. “It must be good; I like how the story is told.”

The smaller woman felt her eye twitch, her entire face burning up in a wild blush, and she snapped her head towards the faunus.

“Are you serious? I’m not reading that to you.”

“Is this part relevant to the story?” Blake asked, impatience showing in her voice.

“Well… yes, kind of,” Weiss muttered, her eyes glancing back to the pages.

“Then go on.”

“But-”

“Do you want to reach the end? Do you really want that to stop you?”

Weiss stared at her, noticing the ears low on the faunus’s head.

“You sound upset.” She remarked after a short silence.

“Well, I want to know how this story ends,” Blake let out, rolling her eyes. “I don’t mind a sex scene. So, if you’d be so kind, go on.”

“But _I_ have to read it _out loud_ to _you_.” Weiss insisted.

“So?”

“So?” she repeated, blinking. “It’s embarrassing!”

“No it’s not,” the faunus huffed, rolling her eyes. “Sex is a part of life that I quite enjoy. Now, could you resume?”

Weiss narrowed her eyes at her, pinching her lips as she felt another blush color her cheeks, and she returned her attention to the book, lowering her head so her bangs was hiding her face.

“Fine,” she finally conceded. “But don’t get hot and bothered, because I swear to God, if you do, I’ll be _crawling_ out of the hut.”

Blake laughed as Weiss tried to compose herself, and the faunus shifted a little beside her, inadvertently pressing her thigh against Weiss’s.

“I will make no such promises,” the faunus let out, a smile in her voice.

At what Weiss cleared her throat loudly, taking in a deep breath to find the courage to go on, and with yet another blush, she continued reading.

It didn’t take her long to get her focus again, in some kind of trance like earlier, reading out loud the scene that was happening in from of her eyes as Blake listened, silent, the figure of stillness. As Weiss spoke, she felt Blake shift very slightly, and when she glanced at her, the faunus had closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall, in her initial position, and she returned her attention on the words in front of her. But as she went on, she could feel, low in her stomach, warmth growing, her heart rate picking up slightly and she had to grit her teeth at some point to try and calm down.

But as she continued, both of them in their own world, it never occurred to them that someone, AKA Blake’s parents, could come in at any time.

“What are you reading?”

Kali’s voice made both of them jump in surprise, and Weiss swiftly closed the book, not even minding that she didn’t marked the page, before tossing it to Blake to hide her face in her hands, trying to disappear as best she could as the faunus laughed very hard.

 

****

 

“I’m never reading to you again.” Weiss let out, her voice quiet, speaking like some kind of trauma survivor.

“She didn’t say anything!” Blake laughed, holding both of Weiss’s elbow as the smaller woman had to step over a large root. “She only laughed at how embarrassed you were.”

“I was reading a sex scene to _you_!” the smaller woman almost whined, huffing. “It’s almost as bad as the real thing.”

“The real thing?”

“Being caught having sex. By a parent.”

When Blake raised a single eyebrow, Weiss rolled her eyes, her cheeks taking a soft pink tint.

“Our butler entered in my room while I was with Ciel, after he mistook a noise inside for me, telling him to enter. That man was more of a father to me that my real father.”

“Huh. What did he say?”

“Nothing. He didn’t even make a face. He just… silently stepped back and closed the door. I’ve never been able to look him in the eyes since.”

“I really don’t think it was that bad,” the faunus smiled, amused. “If anything, _you_ were the one who was hot and bothered.”

“I am a woman with wants and needs!” she exclaimed with a blush, making Blake laugh.

Weiss sighed, holding on Blake’s arm to keep her back straight. Kali, after teasing Weiss and Blake for a whole day, had given her approval on the smaller woman walking around, even encouraged going outside, but the smaller woman had to take it easy, so breaks were expected. And since they were in Blake’s hometown, the faunus knew all the best spots to visit, and had taken upon herself to show Weiss around. And so, they were making their way into the woods, a little past the limits of the town, but even if the smaller woman kept asking Blake, the faunus wouldn’t tell her where they were going.

The trek to wherever Blake was leading her was long, for Weiss had to rest multiple times, but they didn’t mind, keeping the conversation light, and after a while, Weiss started to hear a rumbling. Like a whole lot of water was falling down.

“The cascades!” the smaller woman recalled, her face lighting up as she smiled up at Blake, the faunus returning her smile.

Blake pushed some branches in front of Weiss for her to pass, and she stepped on flat rocks, warm under her feet as it bathed in the sun, the mist the cascade was creating filled with tiny rainbows as the sun caught in it. The water of the cascade was creating a rather large pond, and it transformed in a stream farther back, but Weiss couldn’t help but think that this place was out of a fairy tale, surrounded by trees, almost seeming out of place in the middle of the forest.

She felt Blake’s hand on the small of her back, returning her attention on the faunus as she smiled, and Blake pointed at something with her chin.

“There’s a place in the pond where it makes a small pool, filled with eddies. I used to go there when I wanted to relax.”

The faunus smiled at her, her eyes soft and her hand gentle and light on her back.

“After you worked so hard to get here, you deserve to relax. Wanna try it out?”

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea,” Weiss lightly countered, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.

“Your wounds are all closed up, Weiss. It’s fine. Besides, the water is always warm, here.”

The perspective of a warm bath was enough to convince her, and the faunus slowly leaded her to the place, the rocks forming some kind of natural steps under the water, and Weiss dipped the tip of her foot, testing the water, and her eyebrows shot up.

Blake was right. The water was warm. Pleasingly, deliciously so.

With a decided nod, she looked up at Blake, who blinked once, surprise.

“I need your help to get in the water, but I don’t want you to look.”

The faunus rolled her eyes but still closed her eyes, holding Weiss’s hands after the smaller woman got rid of her clothes, slowly sinking in the warm water with a very pleased hum, making Blake huff with a smile.

“I can leave you alone, if you want,” the faunus joked, but Weiss splashed some water at her, making her laugh.

“You can look now,” the smaller woman informed, carefully leaning her back against the stone.

Two seconds later, Blake was taking a seat beside her, sinking in the water up to her shoulders as she rested her arms on the rocks, her fingers toying shortly with one of Weiss’s white lock. With a sigh, the faunus leaned her head back, closing her eyes, and Weiss did the same. As they listened to the sounds of the forest, she relaxed little by little, feeling the knots in her shoulders loosen a little, and before long, a tiny sigh escaped her lips.

Something brushed the side of her face, lightly, and she opened her eyes to see Blake, a small, soft smile on her lips as she felt her set a stray white lock behind her ear. She couldn’t help but let her fingers linger there for a second, before the soft touch traveled down her neck to her shoulder, and as the fingers stayed there she closed her eyes, swallowing, hating the way her heartbeat picked up just by that. She heard the sound of the water as the faunus shifted closer, feeling Blake’s knee touch hers under the water, and she opened her eyes again, only to see the faunus was so close now, her golden eyes scanning her face as she brought her hand up, gently brushing her fingers against Weiss’s cheek, and one finger teasing the underside of her bottom lip.

There was a hitch in her breath then, her heart hammering in her chest now, and she had to remember how to breathe when Blake glanced down at her lips as she shifted closer again.

She wanted this just as much as her.

But she just _couldn’t_ let this happen.

Blake leaned in, her eyes looking so soft as they searched hers, but when their lips would have met, Weiss shifted her head, pulling away ever so slightly, but it was enough for the faunus to pull back a little, her eyebrows knitted together.

“Blake, there’s something I have to-” Weiss started, her voice quiet as she kept her eyes on the faunus’s shoulder.

“Blake Belladonna!”

Both of them jumped, Blake pulling away as Weiss blushed helplessly, but both of them had recognized the voice.

Sun.

“What is it with you and not telling _me_ , your _best friend_ , when you’re in town?” the man said, setting his hands on his hips as he stared at the faunus, oblivious to what had happened between the women. “Even Weiss is here!”

Without giving the feline faunus the time to reply, he pulled his tunic over his head and Weiss quickly looked away as the man happily joined them, sighing as he glanced from Blake to Weiss.

“Is something wrong?” he asked, his features scrunching up to worry.

“No, it’s fine.” Blake answered with a tight smile.

“Okay.” He nodded. “I heard you got into a fight and Weiss had been injured! Are you okay?” he asked, this time looking at the smaller woman, concern softening his features.

“You talked with my mother,” Blake sighed, sinking a little more in the water.

“Yes, she’s also the one who told me you would be here,” he quickly answered before returning his attention to Weiss, still waiting for an answer.

“I’m fine,” she finally replied. “Kali is a great healer.”

“Uh, I think you mean Kali is _the best_ healer,” he smiled.

Then, he returned his eyes to Blake, who flicked one of her ears in annoyance.

“What happened? I’m always up for a good story!”

“There’s not much more to it,” she answered shortly. “We got into a fight and Weiss got injured.”

The monkey faunus blinked, his shoulders slouching a little. This was going to be hard.

 

**** 

 

Sun had stayed with them until they got back to the hut, only leaving after they went inside, and that night Weiss was so tired after their escapade to the cascade that she was nearly forced to eat, and she went to bed right after. The few days after they never got a chance to talk, Kali or Ghira, Blake’s father, always in the hut with them, and as the days rolled by, Blake’s attention to her was making her heart ache, particularly the bouquets of flowers she would bring back from her hunts, and the tension between them had reached a point where even Kali had noticed. One day, the older woman sent them gather a few herbs for her, tired of the tense silence of the hut.

Weiss was well enough for walking on her own now, but Blake insisted to carry the small basket and she didn’t want to argue with her. The task at hand would already be difficult as it was. The basket was nearly filled when Blake decided it was time, straightening her back as she glanced around.

“What is it you wanted to say, the other day?”

Weiss froze as she was about to drop the plant in the basket, keeping her eyes on it for a second, before letting the herb go and returning to her previous spot, searching for more.

“I um… I want to leave.”

“Okay,” she heard Blake answer behind her, hearing the soft padding of her footsteps on the ground. “Then I’ll tell my parents and we could gather a couple things-”

“Alone.”

She could feel the faunus’s stare on her as the silence stretched, and her nervousness only grew as she stubbornly stayed in the same spot, her hands toying with a flower, now.

“Why?”

Blake’s voice was low, quiet, filled with uncertainty and it made Weiss grimace as she balled her hands into fists.

“You paid your debt,” she let out, hoping her voice was as steady as she wanted it to be. “You saved me. You don’t need to stay with me anymore.”

Silence again. Weiss was about to call her as she turned around but she saw the faunus set the basket down as she sat, crossing her legs, her ears pinned to her scalp.

“But I want to stay with you,” she softly let out, her golden eyes locking with Weiss’s, and the smaller woman gritted her teeth.

“And I don’t want you to.”

“But why?” the faunus asked, raising her voice a little, confused. “I thought-”

“I’m not her, okay?” Weiss let out sharply, effectively interrupting Blake. “I’m not Ilia. I-I already have taken advantage of that enough.”

The faunus blinked, then her face scrunched up.

“What?”

“You don’t have to stay with me, okay? I’m not her. You don’t have to protect me in her memory.”

Blake stared at her for a moment, the words sinking in.

“You really think that’s why I stayed?” she asked in disbelief. “You think that’s why I followed you in the castle?”

“Blake-”

“I did it because I wanted to!” the faunus snapped. “I did it because you were in danger and I wanted to help _you_ , not because of some guilt I have over a ghost!”

The faunus was angry now, her ears pinned against her scalp and her hands balled into tight fists, and the lump that never stopped growing in Weiss’s throat stopped her from talking, and she had to swallow to say something but Blake beat her to it.

“I love you, Weiss. I really liked Ilia, but I love _you_.”

The smaller woman suddenly stood, her throat squeezed so tightly that she had trouble breathing.

“Don’t say that to me,” she breathed, her voice trembling.

“Why? It’s the truth.”

“Don’t say that to me!”

Her shout surprised both of them, but she still stared at Blake with eyes filled with tears, and she saw the faunus clench her jaw, trying to conceal her emotions as best she could.

“Why?” she simply asked then, her voice quiet.

“Because I’ll believe it,” Weiss answered in the same way, feeling her fists tremble beside her.

“Weiss-” the faunus started as she stood, but the smaller woman didn’t give her the time to continue.

“I’m tired of people betraying me, Blake. I won’t survive another, even more if it’s you.”

“But I’ll never leave you,” she replied, her voice so soft and reassuring, and Weiss hated how she wanted to believe it.

“Don’t say that,” Weiss insisted. “You don’t know that.”

The smaller woman turned around, running both her hands in her hair as she took a deep breath, trying to get her thoughts in order and not be the crying mess she wanted to be.

“Why do you even love me?” she asked as she turned back. “I have nothing. I _am_ nothing, I’m in pain, I’m hurting. I’m not even whole anymore. I don’t want you to love broken pieces.”

She sniffed, looking up at the faunus who just stood there, silent, infinite sadness in her eyes, and Weiss looked away. She couldn’t bear it.

“You’re going to live your life alone just because you feared the ‘if’ I left you?” Blake asked.

“I went to Winter based on a certitude that she would help me. I don’t want to take any chances with an ‘if’.”

Weiss swallowed again, rubbing at her eyes as she cleared her throat, trying to get back in control.

“That’s why I want to leave as soon as possible. Today would be best.”

The faunus didn’t move, didn’t say anything as Weiss bent over to take the basket, and she couldn’t even look at her now, just feeling her stare was too much.

“I’m sorry,” she breathed before turning on her heels and quickly getting out of the forest.

 

**** 

 

Blake stayed at a distance, watching as Weiss talked with her parents. Kali gathered a few herbs and the last of the nuts and berries and gave it to her as Weiss thanked her parents profusely, and she was so focused on the scene that she didn’t hear the soft padding beside her, only knowing someone was with her when the person set a hand on her shoulder, making her jump.

“It’s me,” Sun said, his hand leaving her shoulder. “I was wondering what you were doing.”

His eyes traveled to what Blake was watching, and he furrowed his brows.

“You’re leaving?”

“No.”

“But Weiss-”

“Is leaving. Alone.”

Sun glanced at her, seeing her features hard, noticing how her ears were low on her scalp.

“Oh.”

“I’d like to be alone,” she breathed over her shoulder, her eyes not moving from the smaller woman.

Sun glanced at Weiss too, noticing that she was carefully shouldering the bag that Ghira had gave her as she was making her way out of the town, and his eyes went back to Blake.

“Why aren’t you going with her?” he asked. “I know you want to.”

“But she doesn’t.”

“Then why don’t you do it anyway?” he seemed almost desperate. “Or why don’t you convince her to-”

“Sun,” Blake effectively interrupted him, glancing over her shoulder, and it was only now that he realised the dark stare she was giving him, her ears now flush against her scalp. “Shut up.”

He pinched his lips but still stayed silent, his eyes glancing once again to Weiss. After a moment, he turned on his heels and walked away, leaving the feline faunus alone as silently as he came.

Finally alone again, Blake could focus on the smaller woman, recognising her own bag. Her father must have thought that she would need it more than her. She stayed there for a long moment, until Weiss had disappeared behind the trees and was now out of sight, and only now did she made her way to her parents hut, entering without a word and interrupting her parents’ conversation again.

“Blake,” Ghira called as he stood, his features scrunching up in worry. “Weiss just left.”

“I know,” she croaked.

“Are you alright?” he asked, trying to angle his head so he could look at her eyes. “You don’t look alright.”

She stepped closer without a word, burying her face against his hairy chest, and only now she sniffed, feeling her eyes well up even faster than she could think of, and she started crying as she felt her father close his arms around her.

 

**** 

 

For the past few days, Blake didn’t do much. She helped her mother by gathering herbs and plants for her, went with her father for hunts, but besides that, she would be curled up somewhere, up in a tree or in her bed, and it looked so pitiful that her mother was trying everything to cheer her up. But even after various attempt, the younger faunus would just turn around or go away, and Kali even tried to talk with her, but she turned her down again, and, for the moment, Kali gave up.

The day started like every other, Blake still trapped in some kind of haze as she wandered around town, until something, out in the distance, caught her attention.

Her ears perked as she frowned, trying to hear it better, and after a moment she thought that maybe she was going crazy until she saw her mother searching the forest, too.

It took a couple of minutes before they could discern what it was. And when they did, Blake felt her blood run cold.

A loud shrill. A monkey shrill.

After a quick glance to her mother, Blake set off, in her human form, towards the rapidly approaching noise, and before long she saw the blonde monkey jump from tree to tree, dropping in front of her as Sun transformed, panting, leaning his hands on his knees.

“Sun?” Blake asked, surprise. “What are you doing? I thought you were still in town.”

But he grabbed her arm, panting so hard that Blake wondered how long he had been running like this, and after a difficult swallow, he finally said something.

“Weiss… is in danger…” he started, and Blake instantly recoiled.

“Sun-”

“Adam,” he panted then, stopping, trying to catch his breath and talking at the same time.

But Blake wasn’t very patient in general, and she grabbed her friend’s shoulders.

“What are you trying to say? Were you following Weiss?”

He nodded vigorously, and Blake shook him, this time out of anger.

“Why?” she hissed.

“I know… you love her…” he managed to say between his pants. “I wanted to… make sure… she was okay.”

Blake felt her eyes prickle at that, but before she could say something Sun cleared his throat, taking deep breaths, motioning for him to continue.

“I followed from a distance, and I smelled another scent,” he finally said, gaining Blake’s attention instantly. “I went to check, and it was Adam.”

The feline faunus felt her blood run cold, her nails sinking in Sun’s shoulders but he only patted her arms, pushing her towards the woods.

“He’s following your scent, on Weiss’s bag,” he informed, and Blake blanched. “He was still far from her and the scent is faint, so it will take him time to track it down, but you should hurry before he gets to her!”

The feline faunus blinked, the information sinking in, and she grabbed his head, quickly kissing the top of it before starting running in the direction Sun was coming from.

“You’ll be my guide, come on!”

She changed form, feeling Sun, in his beast form, climb on her back and grip her fur tightly, and Blake ran like she never had before, following the monkey’s direction, making her strides as effective as they could be as the plants and leaves slapped against her face. It took some time before she could hear, in the distance, voices, and the clash of blades, and she only ran faster, hoping she would get there in time.

 

**** 

 

Weiss had never felt so lonely in her life. She cried the first night she left Blake’s hometown, holding the bag closely to her chest. The second day, she spent it trying to convince herself that it was the best decision as she traveled, stopping often to rest, but on the fourth day she had failed miserably, now pondering if she would backtrack to get Blake or if she continued on. She slept terribly. She ate just enough to sustain herself, and she dragged her feet all day long, not paying attention to her surroundings at all.

It wasn’t until the loud cracking of a branch made her jump that she realised she had been followed. As she turned around, her heart fluttering in her chest as she thought Blake hadn’t listen to her, she froze at the sight of a tall man, clad in black, wearing a white mask with lines as red as his hair. The man hummed, tilting his head slightly as his hand closed on the red hilt of a blade, and Weiss tensed, her hand inches away from her own hilt.

“You smell like an old friend of mine,” he said, his voice booming even though he didn’t look like he was forcing to.

“Really?” she replied, discreetly lowering the straps of the bad on her shoulders.

“Yes,” he nodded, taking a step closer. “You probably know her, since you have something that belongs to her.”

“Her?” Weiss asked, playing innocent.

The man stopped, his lips forming a thin, fine line, and Weiss noticed his grip tightening on the handle of his blade.

“Unless you stole from her,” he tilted his head to the other side. “In which case I won’t tolerate.”

He pulled on his blade, unsheathing it slowly, and Weiss quickly unsheathed hers, too.

“I’m going to kill you,” the man calmly informed. “I also recognize you. I’ll bring your body back to Atlas and get the reward for the Kingslayer.”

The smaller woman gritted her teeth, dropping the bag and positioning herself, a small smirk on her lips.

“I’d like to see you try.”

The man seemed surprised by her answer as he hummed shortly, but, as fast as lightning, he launched forward, quickly closing the distance between them and their blades clashed together loudly, the tall man using his height to lean all his weight on the blade. Weiss stepped back at the sheer power of the man, her back hitting a tree, and she had to press the side of her forearm against her own blade to push him back, slashing in front of her as he pulled away.

The man dodged the attack easily by stepping back, and he countered with another hit from above, slicing his blood-red sword vertically, and Weiss jumped on the side, rolling on her shoulder.

He was too strong. She couldn’t parry his attacks two times in a row.

The man was fast, too. As soon as she was on her feet, he was already on her, swishing his blade in front of him in a perfect arch. Dodging it by a hair with a backflip, she used her lowered position to launch forward when her feet touched the ground, slashing her rapier, and successfully hit his leg, cutting through the fabric of his pants and the skin.

Rolling on her shoulder again, she spun around in her crouched position, prepared to take advantage of his stumble, but she realised with surprise he was already on her, and she parried his blade, letting it fall the length of her rapier before quickly jumping to the side, keeping distance between them.

The man only straightened his back, not even a little bothered by the deep cut on his thigh, and even through the thin opening, Weiss could tell it was bleeding a lot.

She knew, it _had_ to hurt.

Be he didn’t even seem to notice he was injured.

It was only now that she realised who this man was.

“Adam,” Weiss panted, readying her blade. “The mad Bull.”

The tall man smirked, bowing comically.

“She talked about me,” he said, sounding surprised. “I’m honored.”

He straightened his back, holding his blade in front of him just like Weiss did, his smirk still on his lips.

“Did she tell you why they call me ‘The mad Bull’?” he asked, his voice almost amiable.

She didn’t answer, gritting her teeth, her eyes glancing down at the cut on his thigh. She couldn’t believe this.

“I don’t feel pain,” he smiled, and Weiss felt a shiver run down her back. “No matter how much you’ll cut me, I won’t feel anything.”

Once again, he was the one to close the distance, his smile still on his lips as he brought his blade down, and Weiss parried it with a pained breath, using her forearm again.

“So now that I know you know my friend,” he said quietly, his breath tickling a few strands of hair in Weiss’s face. “Let’s play a little, shall we?”

Gritting her teeth as she felt her back being pushed against a tree again, she leaned on it, and lifted her foot, driving her heel in the side of his knee. She felt him buck, for a second reeling, and she used that to push him back, this time thrusting her blade forward.

She felt her rapier hit its target, the blade sinking deep in the man’s stomach, but he only frowned, looking down at it, humming again as if it was just a mild inconvenience. He grabbed the hilt of Weiss’s blade, pulling on it to let the blade sink deeper, and when he looked up with a wicked smile she tried to let go, but his hand trapped hers, and with the hilt of his blade, he drove it hard against Weiss’s face.

The smaller woman fell to the side, seeing stars as she rolled on her front, trying to get up as she shook her head, but the man only seemed eager to see her up on her own, and he stayed back, Weiss’s rapier still planted in his stomach.

“I never knew my friend could befriend a human,” he said as Weiss crawled a little farther on the ground, blinking to focus her vision. “I’m quite surprised.”

He casually made his way to the small woman, planting his blade on the ground as he crouched, tilting his head to the side as he looked at her.

“Do you know what she did?”

Weiss then got up on her knees, swinging her fist to the man’s face, but he caught her hand, twisting her index finger back and making her scream as it cracked loudly.

“It’s rude to interrupt people, little mouse,” he said, his voice mildly annoyed, before he pointed a finger at her. “You don’t mind if I call you that, right?”

The smaller woman only nursed her hand, panting as she pulled on her finger to replace it, cracking again, and she leaned her forehead on the ground with a whine as the man beside her sighed, standing.

“She killed her best friend before setting an entire town of humans on fire, killing most of the villagers.” He reported. “On _my_ orders.”

She opened an eye to see him tilt his head to the other side, a smirk on his lips.

“I never thought a human would be okay with that.” Then he gasped, bringing his hand to his chest in mock shock. “Unless she didn’t tell you?”

“I don’t care about what she did,” Weiss hissed, gritting her teeth. “I’m a criminal too.”

“Ah, yes,” he smiled, nodding. “Our little Kingslayer. I had thought you would be tougher to kill.”

“Who says I’m done?” she hissed, quickly jumping to her feet.

But before she could do anything, he rammed his palm right on her face, bringing her down with a yell of pain as her head hit the ground.

“I do,” he calmly said.

He pulled his hand away, and Weiss barely got the time to register that her head was probably bleeding and she had cut her lip with her teeth before the same hand closed around her neck, pulling her up and off the ground as the man chocked her.

“Maybe if I kill you she will feel the same way I did,” he let out calmly. “Ilia was my friend too.”

Desperately trying to breathe, Weiss kicked at his chest, trying to hit her rapier, trying to hit his shoulder, his face, _somewhere_ so he would let go, but the hand around her neck only squeezed tighter, and now not a single strand of air could pass. Her kicks lost their power as she gasped, clutching at the man’s arm and wrist, feeling her eyes starting rolling in their orbit, until she heard it.

A roar. Very loud, and very near. Blake.

The man growled under his breath, pulling off the rapier and letting go of the smaller woman as she fell like a rag doll, gasping and coughing weakly.

“Finally,” the man smiled, turning to the sound. “I’ll be reunited with my love again!”

He changed form, transforming into a very massive, red-furred bull, his long and sharp horns pointed towards the sound as the large panther jumped out of a bush, claws out. Blake managed to dodge the pointy end of the horn and landed on his back, immediately clawing and sinking her long fangs in his nape with a low growl, making the bull try to throw her off of him.

Weiss couldn’t move, not yet, her entire frame trembling and feeling weak after being that long without breathing, and she didn’t even reacted when she was pulled behind a tree.

“Weiss! Oh my God, are you okay?”

She opened her eyes, seeing a blonde man quickly looking over the tree at the fight before returning his attention to the smaller woman, his electric blue eyes filled with worry.

“Sun?”

Weiss’s throat was squeezed so tight that just breathing was hurting her, and when she tried to talk, her voice was barely above a whisper, cracked and weak.

“I’m sorry, Weiss, I went as fast as I could,” he continued, glad she had opened her eyes. “I was following you but then I noticed Adam was following you, and I ran as fast as I could to get Blake, and I’m so glad we made it in time!”

His ramble was interrupted by the sudden shaking of the tree, and Weiss could see the bull leaning on it as he tried to stab Blake with his horns, while the feline faunus never stopped clawing and biting.

She felt Sun gather her in his arms as he ran, hiding behind a nearby tree again just in time to see Adam jump, making Blake slip on his blood-covered back, and fall to the ground. The bull stomped his hooves in the ground, but the panther was quick, getting to her feet and dodging, Blake quickly jumping to make some distance between them. They started circling each other, keeping their eyes on the other, blood dripping from the bull’s back until he charged, lowering his head to use his horns. Blake jumped to the side, clawing, plowing his side deeply as the pointed horn scratched her side, too.

The feline yowled as the bull turned around, and Weiss was amazed at how much blood was soaking on the dirt, and as she was thinking he wouldn’t survive this fight, he charged, and Blake stumbled, her injured shoulder not able to carry her weight.

Both Sun and her gasped when one horn found purchase in the dark fur, but as the bull lifted its head and bringing Blake with him, the feline used her back legs to claw at his neck.

The large bull bucked then, dropping to his knees as he coughed, and Blake pulled away from the horn, whining quietly, as the bull coughed again, spitting blood, and soon, the massive frame fell to its side, transforming into its human form, and the mask of the man was shattered, crumbling to the ground.

The feline panted, turning back and hobbled to where Sun and Weiss were hiding, leaving a trail of blood in her wake.

“Blake,” Weiss breathed, already reaching out to the feline faunus, the large head meeting her hands halfway.

She made a soft noise, her golden eyes searching for wounds, but the smaller woman pushed the monkey faunus, making him stand.

“My bag,” she croaked, her throat still sore. “I’ve got herbs, I have to stop the bleeding…”

Sun nodded, quickly fetching the bag as Blake lay down, leaning her head on Weiss’s chest with a deep sigh, her eyes closing.

“Turn,” the smaller woman ordered as she cupped the faunus’s face. “Sun will carry you that way.”

As ordered, Blake turned into her human form, panting, her face livid, and she brushed a few strands of hair out of her face when Sun came back with the bag and her rapier.

“As soon as she’s patched up, you take her,” she ordered at the blond man, grabbing his arm firmly.

He nodded, his eyes glancing down at Blake.

“What about you?” he asked, glancing up. “You’re injured, too.”

“I’ll catch up.” She affirmed.

 

**** 

 

Sun, as ordered, took Blake in his arms and went as fast as he could in the forest. She was determined to follow them, at least from a distance, but after leaving the corpse of Adam, she went off, stumbling into the forest, not even knowing if she was in the right direction.

Her head was spinning, her hand and head was hurting, and her entire body was sore, dragging her feet felt like the most difficult job of the world, and after leaning against a tree to try and catch her breath, Weiss fell, too tired to use her arms to prevent the landing.

Groaning after she landed face first, her head spinning even more, she tried bringing her arms under her to stand again, but they gave out and she fell again.

Lying face first on the ground, her head spinning a mile a minute, she didn’t even had the strength to keep her eyes open, and as she felt herself slip out of consciousness, she wondered about something.

Was she glad to die, or was she sad that she hadn’t had the guts to kiss Blake?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is!
> 
> So next chapter will be the last, and will be a lot shorter probably for it will be an epilogue.
> 
> Thank you for reading! This was amasing!


	7. Chapter 7

She opened her eyes, blinking a few times. She focused on her body, feeling every inches hurt, sore. She lifted her right hand to take a look at it, and there was a splint, keeping it straight as it healed. She then brought her hand to her throat, touching with the tip of her fingers as she swallowed, closing her eyes when a pang of pain rose. Opening her eyes again, she glanced around, recognising the place.

She was back in the hut, in Blake’s hometown. She closed her eyes, praying that Sun had made it in time, and also wondering how she got here. The last thing she remembered was…

She heard a soft sigh beside her, and she opened her eyes wide. Turning her head, never minding about the room spinning slightly as she did, she saw Blake, in her beast form, sleeping beside her, the large head laying on her front paws, and Weiss could see the scratch that Adam had left on her side already healing, and a wave of relief washed over her.

Blake was fine. She was alive and healing.

She shifted, gently leaning her head against the large head, but the movement woke her as she opened her eyes, blinking a few times before finally locking her eyes with Weiss’s. The smaller woman reached up, gently resting her hand on Blake’s soft cheek, thumbing a little, and she felt her eyes prickle, her throat tightening.

“I’m sorry I left,” Weiss murmured, her mistreated voice breaking.

The faunus transformed and she pulled the smaller woman into her arms, burying her face in her neck, holding her close to her.

“I don’t care,” Blake murmured, her voice trembling. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you,” Weiss let out anyway, her voice uneven and breaking a few times.

“I told you I don’t want to hear it,” the faunus insisted, holding her closer.

“Blake, I’m-”

The faunus pulled away just enough so she could close the distance again, taking Weiss’s lips with her own, pressing a little roughly and making Weiss whine a little.

“I don’t care,” Blake said again against her lips, her ears pinned to her scalp. “I don’t want to hear it.”

The next kiss was softer, and by far. The faunus cupped her cheek, gently thumbing her cheek, and Weiss fluttered her eyes shut, drowning herself in the feeling of Blake’s body pressed against her, of her lips on hers, and she didn’t even care when the cut on her lip started hurting again as she slid her fingers in dark tresses, settling at Blake’s nape to hold her in place.

“I see you two woke up.”

They pulled away quickly, Blake almost falling over as Kali raised a single eyebrow, her arms crossed on her chest and her shoulder leaned against the wall, at the foot of the bed, an amused smile on her lips.

“You have a little something here,” Blake’s mother tapped at her own lip a few times as she looked at her daughter.

“Huh?”

Blake brought a hand to her mouth, whipping, but Weiss saw what Kali meant, and she reached up, whipping the blood from the faunus’s lip as her golden eyes settled back on her.

“Oh, the cut on your lip re-opened,” she noted.

“And whose fault is that, I wonder.”

Kali’s amused voice made Weiss blush and the smaller woman was astonished when she noticed the pink tint on Blake’s cheeks, clearing her throat as her mother shooed her away. The younger faunus traded her place with her mother, and changed into her beast form, sitting a few paces behind, a silent figure in the back of the hut as the older woman sat on the edge of the bed, settling her eyes on the smaller woman, making her shift uncomfortably.

“How are you feeling?” she gently asked, reaching a hand and her fingers softly touching her cheek.

When Weiss wanted to answer, her voice caught in her throat, and she cleared it a little, grimacing before trying it again.

“Everything hurts,” she croaked, swallowing.

Kali nodded knowingly, her features scrunching up a little as her fingers trailed down to her neck, feeling it when she tensed.

“You have a huge bruise on your neck, and I keep wondering if your windpipe is not a little crushed.” She reported. “Can you breathe well?”

The smaller woman inhaled deeply, and even thought it was a little wheezy, she still could fill her lungs without problems, so she nodded. The older woman nodded, humming, her eyebrows still knotted together.

“Do you mind if I touch?”

After the smaller woman shook her head, Kali softly palped her neck, her thumb following the line of her jaw to her chin before hovering over her windpipe. The woman was a saint. Weiss knew the bruise was forming a hand. Weiss knew that Kali knew she had been strangled. And even so, she didn’t ask any questions about the matter.

“Could you hum for me?” the older woman asked absentmindedly, keeping her eyes on the smaller woman’s neck.

Humming, as it turned out, was harder than Weiss had thought. As soon as her vocal cords were used, pain would spread, and Kali’s face scrunched up even more.

“Hm. We’ll try that again in a couple of days, maybe your throat is still too rough to really say it won’t heal. In the meantime, try talking as less as possible. Alright?”

Weiss nodded then, and Kali proceeded.

“Now, as for your head,” she shifted a little closer. “You got hit on the side and on the back, and you have a cut on the lip and a bruise on the right side of your face. Were you dizzy and/or nauseous after it happened?”

When she nodded, Kali did the same.

“What about now?”

She shook her head, and the older woman relaxed.

“Good.”

Then, she paused, keeping her eyes on her.

“Do you remember how you got here?” Kali asked softly.

Shaking her head, Weiss frowned a little when the older woman glanced at her daughter before returning her attention to the smaller woman.

“If it weren’t for you, Blake would have bled out,” she informed, and Weiss swallowed. “After Sun dropped Blake, he wanted to get back for you, but the poor boy passed out. So Ghira went and found you passed out. He thought you were dead.”

Her golden eyes went down for a second as she swallowed.

“He might look terrifying, but he’s actually very caring. He came back with you and he was on the verge of crying because you were barely breathing, your head was bleeding, and he couldn’t think about the force needed to leave such a bruise.”

Her eyes went to Weiss’s neck and she saw her clench her jaw, but she quickly ran her tongue over her lips, clearing her throat quietly.

“And now you’re here,” she smiled. “I have a few exercises that you’ll have to do, so I know the extent of the injuries of your head. Alright?”

Weiss nodded again, and Kali did, too.

“Alright. Follow my finger, would you?”

And the exercises went on, under the attentive and protective eye of Blake, in the back.

 

**** 

 

After a few days of rest, the soreness went away, and her head healed a little more quickly than Kali had thought, but since then, Weiss had tried to use her voice as less as possible, which was infuriating. Since Blake couldn’t read, she couldn’t just write to her, and asking Kali to read everything she would write was out of the question.

Blake’s wounds were healing well and quickly, at a normal pace in the faunus’s scale, apparently, the wound on her stomach making a huge splotch of scarring tissue. Sun came around often, checking up on them, and after a while Weiss started to actually appreciate the monkey faunus, his very expressive behavior only a sign of honesty, and he was actually very caring and kind, bringing strawberries a few times for Weiss when he was back from the forest.

But since Weiss couldn’t talk yet, they hadn’t… talked, since they kissed. But still, Blake would slip in Weiss’s bed at night and would offer her flowers when she came back from her hunts, and sometimes Weiss would braid Blake’s hair for fun, the faunus liking the feeling of someone playing with her hair.

The smaller woman would try to hum sometimes, feeling less and less pain as the days went on, and went she decided to actually tell Kali, the healer was glad, and proceeded with a few exercises.

 

**** 

 

“It’s still as pleasant as it was the first time,” Weiss sighed, keeping her voice low, feeling the soft pulls of her still healing vocal cords.

She probably won’t be able to sing like she used to, but it didn’t really bothered her right now as she sank in the warm water to her shoulders, closing her eyes as she hummed in delight, hearing the faunus chuckle beside her.

They were back at the cascade, relaxing in the small pool as they had sneaked out of the hut without waking Blake’s parents, and they both admired the big, shattered moon, Weiss felt peaceful again, and as she glanced over at Blake, seeing the faunus looking up with her ears gently flicking in the breeze, she knew she was feeling it, too. But as she was leaning her back against the stone, she noticed the faunus frowning a little.

“I have something to tell you,” she blurted out, catching Weiss’s attention.

“Yes?”

“The night I… I killed Ilia,” Blake started, and she already knew what she was going to say. “I was on a mission for the White Fang. It’s a group of faunus who wants their lands back from the humans. My mission was to… It was to burn down a military settlement, to send a message to the humans invader. Ilia tried to convince me it wasn’t one, that it was a village, that it wasn’t a threat, but I had my orders. Adam’s orders.”

She saw the faunus close her eyes, and her hands balling into fists, but she said nothing, wanting her to finish her story.

“I was his lieutenant,” she quietly informed. “We both were. We excelled in recon missions. You know, chameleons,” she smiled shortly. “This mission, however, was different, but still. So far, Adam’s Intel had always been correct, and he told me himself what this place was, but Ilia still tried to stop me. I can’t believe I did this,” she murmured.

“The thing is, I was also… with Adam. For a while, now,” she hesitantly said, and it made Weiss’s eyebrows shot up. “Ilia warned me about him, she tried to make me see how… wicked he was. And she was right, of course. I just can’t believe how blind I was!”

Blake brought her hands to her face, rubbing for a few seconds before sliding both of them in her hair with a sigh, keeping her eyes to the sky.

“When I set the village on fire, I saw humans trying to get out. Families. Young mothers with their children. I… I killed them, Weiss. Ilia was right.”

She sighed again, her breath trembling.

“I left my post and went in the village as it was ablaze,” she continued, her face scrunching up at the memory. “I tried to help as many as I could. I went inside a house to get a child that was stuck in a room, upstairs, but he was already dead when I got him out. Probably died in my arms on the way out. The mother stared at me as I set him down. He was so small… She saw my ears, saw the White Fang badge on my collar, and she knew. She knew it was me. She called me a monster, and I let her.”

The faunus clenched her jaw for a second, her eyes still staring at the sky, almost avoiding to look at Weiss, now.

“I am a monster,” she quietly let out. “I killed more people than I can count, and-”

“Blake.”

The faunus lamely stopped, lowering her gaze but not looking at her, her ears pulled back.

“Don’t tell me it’s fine, Weiss,” she breathed. “I’m a murderer.”

“I am, too.”

Golden eyes stared at her now, blinking.

“I’m glad you told me,” Weiss softly said. “About Adam and what you did. I really do. But I am going to be blunt about this: I couldn’t care less.”

The faunus raised her eyebrows, blinking again.

“You left the White Fang, you left Adam, and you tried to help them. You’ve been carrying your cross all this time. To me, that’s all that matters.”

Blake clenched her jaw again, taking a deep breath as she looked up again, nodding silently, her expression neutral as she tried to control her emotions. A silence fell on them for a long moment, the heavy atmosphere slowly dissipating as the soft chirping of the frogs around the pond surrounded them, making Weiss relax. She closed her eyes then, enjoying the warmth of the water, until she felt something brush against her cheek, and she smiled without opening her eyes.

“What do you want to do now?” Blake asked softly, her fingers lingering a little behind her ear.

“Enjoy this midnight bath with you?” she said questioningly, keeping her eyes closed.

She heard the faunus huff.

“You know what I mean.”

And she knew. Weiss, now nearly healed to a hundred percent, would have to go. Menagerie, as Weiss learned the town was called, is a refuge, home for faunus, and seeing a human around was making more than one nervous.

But she had nowhere to go.

“I don’t know,” she quietly let out, opening her eyes. “I honestly don’t know.”

The faunus hummed, shifting closer, and she felt Blake nuzzle her shoulder gently.

“Can I come with you, this time?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Only if you want to.”

“Then I guess you’re stuck with me until I die.”

Weiss snorted, smiling when she felt the faunus softly press a kiss on her shoulder, and a shiver ran down her back.

“You don’t know that,” the smaller woman retorted. “Maybe I’ll drive you crazy enough for you to leave.”

“Nonsense. I’ll just have to give you the cold shoulder by always being in my beast form until you beg me to talk to you again.”

The smaller woman splashed some water in Blake’s face, making her laugh softly.

“Then I guess we’ll just wander together,” Weiss murmured, looking at the faunus.

Their eyes locked for a moment, and the faunus smiled, squinting her eyes.

“Can I kiss you?” she asked, keeping her voice low and quiet as if she was asking for something forbidden.

“I would really like you to,” Weiss smiled.

And the faunus leaned over, gently brushing her lips against Weiss’s, but not yet pressing. Teasing.

“Can I touch you?” the faunus asked against her skin, her warm breath sending another shiver down her spine as she locked her eyes with her.

Golden eyes were fixated on her with such intensity that Weiss could feel a rush of excitement through her body, cursing internally about how little the faunus had to do to turn her on.

“I-I would, also, really like you to,” she stammered a little, swallowing.

And Blake smiled, her eyes half-closed and predatory as she felt Blake’s hands settle delicately on her hips, under the water, and a very weak, trembling breath escaped her lips.

“Good,” the faunus breathed, leaning in to take Weiss’s lips as she pressed herself against the smaller woman.

As she felt Blake leave a trail of kisses down her neck, always so careful but still with a hunger that Weiss could feel too, she looked up at the sky, and closed her eyes.

 _This_ was the right decision. Being with Blake. The rest could wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the end! Thank you again for reading, it had been fun!


End file.
